© Martin Skoog
A Kind of Hades
(Eine Art Hades)
Translated by Angelika Gundlach
11F / 30M, smaller cast possible, min. 15 actors
The locked psychaitric ward, a forecourt to hell. While life outside moves on relentlessly, Norén shows people who dropped out of its order, a panorama of the damaged and the losers: Failed teachers, burned-out managers, a girl that might have been sexually abused by her father, or maybe not, as the invisible is hard to prove. A confused Greek wanders through the room, carrying all his belongings in smelly plastic bags, a Bosnian woman is on the phone, pleading with her husband to flee and take the children, for fear of being murdered – there are reasons for the madness. "A bulky text, providing no consolation, no height of fall, no dramatic development towards moral rehabilitation or political emancipation. It offers nothing but a crass assessment of a normal day in some 'asylum'... What makes for Norén's audacious authenticity of his text is, that he does it completely without the known clichés.» (Theater heute)
World premiere
2.5.1997 Toneelgroep Amsterdam (Director: Gerardjan Rijnders)
German language premiere
16.5.1998 Staatstheater Kassel (Director: Adelheid Müther)
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