Rimini Protokoll (Helgard Haug)
Germany | Performance

Chinchilla Arschloch, waswas

«No offence, it’s just Tourette’s», is what Christian Hempel is quick to clarify from the onset, when he’s among people. He cannot control his rants, insults and tics. They are reactions to the world around him. Tourette’s syndrome seeks attention. It craves confrontation and commotion. At first glance, it would seem impossible to create a theatre piece with Tourette’s: No text is safe; no movement can be repeated. In «Chinchilla Arsehole, eyey», Christian Hempel steps onto the theatre stage together with the musician and geriatric nurse Benjamin Jürgens and the German politician Bijan Kaffenberger. They also have Tourette’s. Together with the Berlin-based musician Barbara Morgenstern, they put theatre to the test: To what degree can theatre tolerate an absence of intent? How much protection can theatre offer?

The Rimini Protokoll collective, which has received many sought-after theatre awards and honours, has played Kaserne Basel several times before. At this year’s festival, they will be presenting a particularly touching, but also humorous and surprising evening of theatre. Since «Chinchilla Arsehole, eyey» is not actually about Tourette’s. It is about the audience, theatre and the fear of losing control.

«It is phenomenally well done, well thought-out piece of theatre, since it touches, irritates and unsettles you, since it surprises you with familiar things to such a degree that you start to see things from a different perspective.»

(Deutschlandfunk)