Sydney Theatre Company and UBS Investment Bank present
Gross Und Klein
(Big and Small)
A Journey across contemporary Germany
by Botho Strauss
English text by Martin Crimp
Whisking us down a rabbit hole and into a wonderland-like world, Gross und Klein (Big and Small) transports us to a hotel dining room in Morocco where Lotte sits alone. She is all dressed up with nowhere to go. There is no one to chat to. Her siesta tour group is ‘at odds’ so she declines to join their excursions. She hasn’t the money to pay for them anyway. For now she will sit alone, listening to the men arguing outside the window, stoically cheerful in the hope that someone, somewhere will need her help or affection.
Here begins an exquisite sequence of scenes in which the courageously optimistic and perpetually disappointed Lotte searches for human connection. She is rejected by her husband, unrecognised by old friends and unfamiliar with her family. Even Lotte’s acquaintances won’t admit to being acquainted with her. Whether she is outside a window peeping in or buzzing on an unanswered intercom this iconic protagonist never quite fits. Like Carroll’s Alice, sometimes Lotte is too big for her surroundings, sometimes too small to be noticed within them.
First staged in 1978, this delicately surreal play was written by Botho Strauss (The Park, Seven Doors, Time and the Room) who, over the course of his long and prolific career, has become one of the most extensively performed playwrights modern Germany has produced. Now another of Europe’s great writers, Martin Crimp (The City, The Country, Attempts on Her Life) will create a new adaptation of Gross und Klein (Big and Small).
This ambitious theatre project is co-commissioned with some of Europe’s leading theatre companies and festivals including Ruhrfestspiele Recklinghausen, Barbican London and London 2012 Festival, Théâtre de la Ville and Wiener Festwochen. It will premiere at Sydney Theatre in 2011 before touring to Europe in early 2012.
2 hours, 40 mins, including interval
Venue: Sydney Theatre, Walsh Bay
