Philipp Löhle

Philipp Löhle was born in Ravensburg in 1978. He studied history, theatre, media studies as well as German literature in Erlangen/Germany and Rome. He wrote his first works during his studies. He has also written journalistic pieces and made films (short films, documentaries). For Genannt Gospodin (Called Gospodin) the author was awarded the talent award instituted by the German industries association. In 2007 Philipp Löhle received a commission funded by the German agency for civic education..Lilly Link was awarded the Jury Prize of the Heidelberger Stückemarkt. For Genannt Gospodin he was nominated in 2008 for the Mülheim Dramatists’ award. He was nominated for the second time in 2012 and won the Audience Award for Das Ding (The Thing). Philipp was writer-in-residence at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, at the Nationaltheater Mannheim/Germany and at the Staatstheater Mainz/Germany. During the 2013/2014 season, he is the writer-in-residence at the KonzertTheater Bern/Switzerland.

Theatre works
2011 / Das Ding;
 (The Thing), first staged: 14.05.2011, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg.
2012 / Der Wind macht das Fähnchen Ein Einfamilienstück; (The Way the Wind Blows) A family drama, first staged: 20.01.2012, Theater Bonn, Germany
2008 / Die Kaperer; (The Capturers), first staged: 20.03.2008 Schauspielhaus, Vienna.
2009 / Die Rattenfalle, empfohlen ab 10 Jahre; (The Rat Trap), for audiences 10 years and older, first staged: Februar 2009, Theater Aalen, Germany.
2009 / Die Unsicherheit der Sachlage; (Uncertain Circumstances), first staged: Mai 2009, Schauspielhaus Bochum, Germany.
2010 / Die Überflüssigen; (The Superfluous), first staged: 28.05.2010, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin.
2007 / Genannt Gospodin; (Called Gospodin), first staged: 28.10.2007, Schauspielhaus Bochum, Germany.
Herr Weber und andere (Herr Weber and Others)
2005 / Kauf-Land; (The Store), first staged: 14.04.2005, Theater Erlangen, Germany.
2008 / Lilly Link oder Schwere Zeiten für die Rev… ; (Lily Link or Hard Times for the Rev…), first staged: 07.11.2008, Theater Heidelberg, Germany.
2009 / Morgen ist auch noch ein Tag; Tomorrow’s another day), first staged: 23.01.2009, Theater Baden-Baden, Germany. Commissioned by German agency for civic education
2013 / Nullen und Einsen; (Zeroes and Ones), first staged: 19.01.2013, Staatstheater Mainz, Germany.
2011 / supernova (wie gold entsteht); (supernova (the origin of gold), first staged: 15.01.2011, Nationaltheater Mannheim, Germany.

Die Unsicherheit der Sachlage
Jule has separated from him and his friends Björn and Robert are not much help either. So Jan C. Schmidt lands on the street with his suitcase. But Jan C. Schmidt is a person who writes so he tries to make the best of the circumstances and starts to write a story. He observes the city like an urban nomad, lets it get under his skin, becomes the city’s commentator. And soon he can report incredible things of the city which it does not know itself, of a city which is burning. Incidents of everyday violence, sickness and death fuse to become a picture of pervasive danger. Is the observer the source of the danger? An older gentleman from the wings explains how reality should be properly observed and recorded – and while perhaps not increasing the uncertainty, he at least underscores the puzzling nature of the circumstances. Philipp Löhle’s piece is about the quest for a secure world, which already fails because of the inadequacy of its interpretation. Could perfect surveillance serve as the alternative to rescue the individual view of things? Or will this strange and dying world reveal itself after all to the visionary observer?

characters: at least 4 persons (1 woman; 4 man)

– Extracts from Die Unsicherheit der Sachlage –

Szene 11: With Björn for a beer
Jan: Björn.
Björn: Yes.
Jan: Björn.
Björn: Yes.
Jan: Björn.
Björn: Jan!
Jan: It’s just a completely different perspective. It’s only now that I’m seeing it. Like when a veil is pulled off from your face. Or when the window cleaners have been there or when one suddenly has windows.
Björn: You could, you know… there’s the couch… you don’t have to.
Jan embraces Björn.
Jan: It’s absolutely lovely. Really, but it’s also summer. And the starry sky. It’s wonderful.
Björn: Robert also loves to sleep on the balcony in summer. I’m always bitten all over. Must be my blood. Or just my smell.
Jan: Björn.
Björn: Yes.
Jan: Björn.
Björn: Yes.
Jan: Björn.
Björn: Jan!
Jan: People need to go outdoors. We need it. Breathe deeply and take in… take in this universe. All of a sudden, I have this universe in front of me. Everything is open, much wider. We don’t have a clue, do we? We sit in front of the idiot box every evening and ourselves be told how the world apparently ticks, but that’s not the way it works. It’s all just a construct of TV and the ads and Günther Jauch and such. It’s all not true.
Björn: Yeah. Except the news. Tagesthemen in any case. Heute Journal is also not what it once was. You can forget the private channels. Big tits, emotions but on Channel One… that’s what TV and radio fees are for, to educate the public, sure, truth content not verifiable, are we victims of propaganda for objective news? The head spins, just to think about it …
Jan: News. That’s rubbish. You’ve got the whole world ahead of you. Like under a lens. But we don’t notice it at all. We simply don’t notice how crazy the world in which we’re living has become.
Björn: Oy.
Jan: The news shows only remote battlefields. That’s bad enough but we forget what’s happening in front of our own doors. For instance, this morning I was at the crossing at the castle tower. I just stood there and watched the traffic.
Björn: You should have a lot of time on your hands.
Jan: And how they yelled. Just because I stood there. Crazy. Asshole, drifter. Get out of my way. Things like that. Incredible. And seven cars ran into each other. And the aggression that’s released when two cars even touch each other.
Björn: The mental and physical benefits of full insurance cover contribute to more relaxed, worry-free driving. Test subjects wearing a pulse monitor with and without full cover showed markedly distinct responses. People without full cover are three times more prone to heart attacks. Says so in the October issue of Auto-Science.
Jan: They’re all crazy. You won’t believe me. They yelled at me. They yell at someone standing in the way because of a scratched bumper. This is madness. And of course I was grinning like the Mona Lisa. Maybe it wasn’t right. But they didn’t know what I was thinking.
Björn: The drawbacks of full cover insurance are merely financial.
–
Jan: Did I leave my knife at your place?
Björn: I didn’t find one.
Jan: The bakeries put out stuff that doesn’t sell on the street because they’d be sent back otherwise. So I picked up a loaf of bread but I couldn’t slice it because I didn’t have my knife with me.
Björn: You could break the bread.
Jan: They’d put it in the trash otherwise. I could also pick it up from there. There are whole groups in New York who live off leftovers. They make little buffets from them. Anyone can join them and eat for free. And everything is still good. Just a few days off date.
Björn: And where will you sleep tonight? Do you always sleep in the park?
Jan: Nah. There’s this field on Naumannstrasse… a vacant plot.
Björn: You’re like these country films where everyone sleeps on fields.
Jan: Isn’t that romantic?
Scene 12: Jan is speaking into a Dictaphone and calls it working
Jan: WHAT WE LACK IS PERSPECTIVE. WE’RE ALL RUNNING AROUND LIKE MICE IN A BOX. FLICKERING TVs IN ALL LIVING ROOMS EVERY EVENING AND THE BRAINS SWITCHED OFF. AND I? I CLIMBED A TREE TODAY. WHEN DID YOU LAST CLIMB A TREE? TELL ME THAT. DO YOU KNOW AT ALL HOW BARK SMELLS? DO YOU REMEMBER THAT PEOPLE CARVED THEIR LOVE ON TREES BACK THEN? GO WRITE AN E-MAIL TO A TREE.