Garland

Photos: Martin Sigmund/Maurice Bajohr

Svenja Viola Bungarten wrote an absurde "road movie" for the stage. Here, the future is not a promise, but a threat.

Svenja Viola Bungarten’s delightfully quirky play is a parody of the modern fairy tale The Wizard of Oz, famously adapted into a 1939 musical film starring Judy Garland as Dorothy. The production cleverly nods to the exploitative and careless conditions behind the original film, while staging a surreal encounter between the real Judy Garland and her on-screen alter ego, Dorothy. In this end-of-the-world scenario, the eccentric desires of its characters collide, resulting in a witty climate comedy that invites reflection as much as laughter. After all, as the play reminds us, “hope is a matter of genre.”

“‘Garland’ is a play with little plot, instead presenting a society of eccentric and significant characters coexisting in a colorful unreality. A piece into which the Tübingen ensemble throws themselves with great joy. The music by Caio de Azevedo amplifies the atmosphere in its own peculiar way, using curious sound effects and creating clever moments in the American ice-cream apocalypse on the edge of the Swabian Alb.” Thomas Morawitzky, Reutlinger General-Anzeiger

“The play addresses the many conflicts and crises that concern society, with a particular focus on the climate crisis and the associated generational conflict. To avoid seeming contrived, text and direction successfully employ self-irony.”
Moritz Siebert, Schwäbisches Tagblatt

Premiere: 12 April 2024
Landestheater Tübingen

Direction: Maike Bouschen
Set design: Valentina Pino Reyes
Music: Caio de Azevedo
Dramaturgy: Adrian Herrmann
Lighting: Milan Basarić
Assistant director: Maurice Bajohr
Actors: Solveig Eger, Franziska Beyer, Jennifer Kornprobst, Andreas Guglielmetti, Jonas Hellenkemper, Dennis Junge, Justin Hibbeler