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The reputation of being the tech nerd among prose writers is not quite lived up to - intentionally - by Graz-born writer Clemens J. Setz in his stage text "Flüstern in stehenden Zügen". The protagonist C. negotiates his needy situation with machine-like people on the other side of the world, connected via telephone, trapped in the planned languages of call center employees and co-workers. They always handle their "conversations" mechanically, for the purpose of financially facilitating gullible users. C. takes a stand against these machinations in countless calls.
The medium of the telephone serves here above all as an indicator of Setz's fantasy about a man who has nowhere to satisfy his hunger for human closeness. His attempts to lead into conversation with people whose job it is not to be human lead into communication deserts, in which even the protagonist's most heated upsurge sinks to the calculation, toward the script of the rip-off companies. The personal contact with a customer of his computer repair business all too soon turns into another, but somewhat longer telephone call. Clemens J. Setz wisely leaves the audience in the dark about where all this may lead into.
The ORF Landesstudio Steiermark, Ö1 and the Schauspielhaus Graz have taken the path from the stage to the radio play. "Flüstern in stehenden Zügen" in the Graz production by Anja Michaela Wohlfahrt is a successful play of theatrical forms. In the radio play version, all elements directed either at the stage or the audience are missing.
Thus, Setz's text turns out to be a sensitive, lyrical narrative from within the lonely protagonist C. and an excellent basis for the sound worlds of radio play maker and sound artist Stefan Weber, directed by Philip Scheiner. The main role is performed, as at the Schauspielhaus Graz, by Raphael Muff, with Evamaria Salcher and Franz Solar.
A co-production of ORF Styria, Schauspielhaus Graz and Ö1, 2021.
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Schauspielhaus Graz
Ö1 Schwerpunkt: 9 x Österreich - Die Grüne Mark
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