GEWÖLK
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CAST: LUISE ZIEGER, ILJA HARJES, CHRISTIAN BO SALLE, KATHARINA BRENNER (VOICE OVER)
DIRECTING TAMARA SONJA AIJAMATHIESEN
TEXT: PAULA KLÄY
STAGEDESIGN / COSTUME: ANTON VON BREDOW
DRAMATURGY: JULIA FIEBAG
PREMIERE: JAN 2026
(WORLD PREMIERE)
Mavie actually wants to talk about her heartbreak. Her friend Lou didn't show up for their planned motorbike road trip, leaving Mavie to her fate. She is destined to be eaten by a pack of wild dogs, but Mavie has had enough of this play that is her life. She stops following the script and begins to think up a new text. When the playwright Peter notices that his character has taken on a life of her own, he takes action with her. Character and author meet on the theatre stage and explore the banality of transience. With death-defying courage, Mavie and Peter begin to recount their losses, which manifest themselves again and again in seemingly everyday observations of animals and objects: a mayfly circling the vinegar, the end of asparagus season, a melting glacier, Mavie's parents who never spoke, and Peter's father who has forgotten how to live.
Gewölk shifts the harshness of real losses to the theatre stage, where they are both true and fictional. Where the stage fog is the forgetfulness of Peter's demented father, but also – stage fog. In this way, the text elevates sadness to an absurdly humorous experiment in which Mavie can refuse to accept loss. She cries out for life and love, refusing to be defeated by the fear of loss, and with a strong will to determine even death itself.
Directed by Tamara Aijamathiesen, the play delightfully jumps back and forth between fiction and reality.
...The three protagonists – brilliantly played – are aware of their roles as theatre characters. At times they are part of the planned play, then they find themselves discussing the play, then they sink into thoughts about personal losses.
(Die Glocke)
At first, the play sounds complicated. And it is. But at the same time, it is also very entertaining, because Kläy infuses the play with just the right amount of humour. Director Tamara Aijamathiesen also demonstrates a keen sense of how funny you can be without being silly.
...When Peter talks about his father's death, the latter suddenly shuffles across the stage (...) – just like that, out of nowhere, and then disappears again like a memory (...). It's a successful scene because it seems to surprise the actors as much as the audience and echoes the absurdity that Camus attributes to our existence.
...The production impresses with its clever ideas. Added to this are Luise Zieger as Mavie, Ilja Harjes as Peter and Christian Bo Salle as the director, all of whom perform with lightness and charm. Yes, it's fun to watch them navigate the complex structure of the play.
(Westfälische Nachrichten)
In ‘Gewölk’, Paula Kläy writes about creating (theatrical) illusion, about loss and transience. In its premiere in Münster, director Tamara Aijamathiesen happily plays along with this bizarre game.
On stage, as in the text, the worlds merge. The step between reality and illusion is not a big one and is taken with ease.
(Kultur.west)