Die große Freiheit - Theater für die Jugend Burghausen

DIE GROSSE FREIHEIT
A comedy by Mario Eick

Theater für die Jugend Burghausen

This story was originally set in a future where a far-right party wins an absolute majority in elections. But even during production, Mario Eick's comedy about "great freedom" was being overtaken by real-world events almost daily. "While we're on tour with our show, fiction and reality are neck and neck every single day," says Mario Eick, the director.

A great global economic war is raging. Out of fear of losing prosperity and security, Alfred Hetzlaff has been elected the new chancellor. But instead of a hero to lead the country out of crisis, Hetzlaff turns out to be a megalomaniacal, pyromanic dictator. The residents of the Iwisch quarter bear the brunt of it. There, people sell steam instead of sausage and mock Hetzlaff's national guardsmen, who are busy harassing the population. When his counterpart Donaldo Trampoloni invades the neighbouring country, Hetzlaff seems to spiral completely out of control. He wants to stand in the way of the transatlantic superpower as a naked Spartan - but it is Sami, the Iwisch owner of a beauty salon, who manages to trip up the madness. It helps that he looks uncannily like the dictator.

"Die große Freiheit" is a fast-paced, very dark comedy with a warm and humane happy ending.

With: Bálint Walter, Emily Schmeller, Anna März, Susan Hecker, Werner Schwarz
Written and directed by: Mario Eick