Once Fabian Hinrichs speaks to him directly. The theory of relativity was what he was talking about in his breathless lecture. No matter what Einstein said, Hinrichs states, is won’t come back. Who is meant by this he can be seen on one of the posters with which one wall of the stage is papered: the director René Pollesch. He is a silent witness to what is happening on stage. And somehow everything there points to him.
The actor Fabian Hinrichs says his sentence in the role of “Paul” in the play “Something has happened”, but even more so than himself. It was less than two years ago, on February 11, 2024, Hinrichs celebrated the premiere together with Pollesch at the same location, on the large stage of the Berlin Volksbühne. “Yes nothing is ok” was to be the last in a series of furiously celebrated Pollesch-Hinrichs productions. Two weeks later The Berlin director, playwright and artistic director died unexpectedly.
Now Hinrichs is standing there again, alone in front of the audience, and has to do it without Pollesch. He got other support, again from someone who is also personally close to him. He wrote, conceived and staged his new solo together with his wife, the psychotherapist Anne Hinrichs.
At first glance, you could still consider “Something happened” to be a Pollesch evening. A title as if borrowed from the nonsense that people spout. A neurotic city dweller in the main role, who struggles with himself, his surroundings and his demands and puts all of this into words in which one can find oneself, which consumes the entire drama of modern man as he vegetates, constructs his worldview and takes off his blinders in front of everything that could spoil his beautiful life, but always takes it to the extreme. Above all, the inimitable Fabian Hinrichs sound means that you can’t help but think of the previous pieces, such as “Kill your darlings”. “Belief in the possibility of the complete renewal of the world” im Friedrichstadtpalast, an “Are you all right?” or everyone else.
Everything reminds of him
Even the magnificent stage design by Nina von Mechow seems to be reminiscent of Pollesch. In “Yes, nothing is okay” there was still a bungalow on the revolving stage. For the new piece, Nina von Mechow put a simple gabled house with a garage on it, which can be lifted off its hinges if necessary.
“Something happened” tells the story of “Paul” and “Claudia”. Hinrichs plays both parts, jumping back and forth, letting his Paul stalk around bow-legged and his Claudia discussing with gestures. He mastered it brilliantly, as always, and received a standing ovation at the final applause.
Paul and Claudia met on March 28, 2011, as we learn in the course of the play, in a back-of-house apartment in Berlin-Wedding, where, sitting back to back, they accidentally touched each other and felt as if they had been struck by lightning. Claudia’s eyes seemed as blue as the sea near Cuxhaven to Paul.
Gray early relationship, rosy initial phase. In the meantime they have moved in together. They cook together or make cheese sandwiches, go jogging, give each other a massage in front of the TV. At least on good days, but those have become rare. It doesn’t work anymore.
The world is struggling with them
The basic mood is aggressive, the two attack each other, Claudia demands her own room, Paul threatens suicide. They fight over banalities, argue about house keys, kitchen furniture, salad ingredients, wrestle with each other, but also with the world. Or the world with them?
Because this world with its terrible reports bursts into idyll from the very beginning. When they met, the Fukushima disaster was happening. The exciting countries where they once vacationed are now trouble spots.
Pollesch was a master at packing the depths of our existence into subtle punchlines. In “Something has happened,” the criticism of the affluent society doesn’t come through the back door, it’s placed right in front of the house, in the form of an advertising display showing clips from luxury brands: make-up, T-shirts, sunglasses, watches, sneakers.
And the moral club swings relentlessly. Shortly after Paul and Claudia argue about who should have how much burrata, machine gun fire can be heard offscreen. Later, images of destruction from international theaters of war are projected across the scene. They overshadow everything until Claudia interrupts questioningly: “Do we still have peppers, Paul?”
Not just anything, but quite a lot happened. But something is missing, a bit of lightness in the way the mirror is held up. Someone is missing. Not just anyone.