Liebe brennt wie ein nasser Lappen

"One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. (…) “What has happened to me?” he thought. It was no dream."
—Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

Welcome to the city! Welcome to the city where anything is possible and everything must succeed. Step into the city of dreams, where everything can always transform, and success seems within reach.

Watch the play Love Burns Like a Wet Rag, where five characters searching for their place in life collide: a magician with magic-malfunction issues, an actress with an inquiry, a Hebrew teacher, a master, and a director with a scandal are all ready to entertain you. Welcome to Theaterhaus Jena! But what happens if someone in the city—on stage—has a particularly bad day? The show must go on?

Dor Aloni, born 1987 in Tel Aviv, director, actor, and Hebrew teacher among other things, explores Franz Kafka’s humor together with the Theaterhaus ensemble. Following the traces of self-irony, they investigate how to deal with sudden breaks, the fear of the new, and the unexpected.

In Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa wakes up one morning transformed into a vermin. A rupture from his previous life and that of his family follows. Kafka depicts Gregor’s handling of his new identity and the family’s rejection of him. Only his sister shows concern for him, until she too eventually turns away. After his death, the servant disposes of him, and the family begins a new life with a trip “out into the country beyond the city.”

What is our nature at the tipping point of maximum uncertainty? How can we confront it without becoming aggressive or fleeing? With humor and self-irony, absurdity can be traced and explored within contrasts.

Premiere: 05 November 2022
Duration: 1h 30min