The Pearl

A shell! Mysterious and full of promise. Is there really a pearl in there? Beaver Biba is blown away. The joy, the fascination that develops from finding the shell and the hope for all-encompassing happiness immediately resonates with the audience when Maike Jansen as Biba with the wonderful shell in her arms excitedly flops back and forth on stage. And then, exhausted from all his thoughts about the pearl he had hoped for, Biba falls asleep and dreams.

With a wonderfully gigantic pearl around its neck, the dreaming beaver experiences what such a miracle of pearls can trigger. The large and small audience in the Würzburg Plastic Theater Hobbit is enchanted and sympathizes when the two grandiose actors Stefan Ferencz and Maike Jansen perform with perfect, pinpoint physical theatre, clownesque elements and predominantly mimic "speaking" completely poetic Helme Heine's book "The Pearl" on stage.

They succeed in making the nature and feelings of Biba and each of his friends tangible. The two play so well that even as a spectator you can empathize with the deep, almost phlegmatic calm of the moose (stunning Stefan Ferencz), the fast jumping and airy nature of the rabbit (heavenly light Maike Jansen), the also capricious pig and the mood of the bear. The two also clearly experience their individual desire to have on stage. Everything is played and conveyed so intensely that one could almost forget that Biba is dreaming, that one gets anxious heart palpitations and fears how it will all end??

Because everyone wants her, the pearl. Everyone tries to snag. Many means are right. It started with a lie. Biba found the pearl in the forest... And finally? As a result of the overly covetous back and forth? No beavers, no dam and finally no more water. Instead, drought and the threat of disaster, which then also comes: an all-consuming fire.

you can hear it. The flicker. you can see it. Thanks to the huge flaming flaming flag waving in mighty arches and shapes that comes alive, really becomes breathless fire. An all-round ingenious trick that lets you almost smell the fire, that all-destructive fire that has been unleashed by dissatisfaction, possessiveness and selfishness, that crushes everything and burns - or would burn - the very basis of life.

Because these brilliant minutes are followed by salvation. It was just a dream! Biba wakes up, comes "back", staggers a little: And now? He hesitates, looks at the shell and realization spreads through him. But he doesn't leave it at that.

He comes into action. The shell has to go. And she flies back into the pond with momentum.

Finally free again: time for friends.

Pohyb's and company and their "pearl": in two senses - fabulous!

Corina Roeder