René Pollesch, one of the most influential theatre makers in post-dramatic theatre, died unexpectedly in February 2024. His piece ja nichts ist ok had premiered two weeks earlier. The play takes us into a flat share. Paul, Claudia and Stefan live together – more or less. Their daily lives are dominated by conversations about doctor’s appointments and complaints about one or another’s mess. If there’s still time, they might get into an argument whether it is a ‘war crime’ to drop ‘heavy bombs on residential areas’. Until the flat share and the entire situation eventually implodes. Fabian Hinrichs, who has received several awards for his acting and has been a long-time companion of Pollesch, plays all characters himself. Using minor props, he slips from one persona into another, pulling himself out of the pool by his own hair in a fight. The long track of human conflict, the torn self in the process of civilization, the exhaustion of society: all of that is embodied in this communal living situation. It is a play in the manner of Pollesch: comically sad and tragically funny.

Pollesch was last featured at the Wiener Festwochen with his successful play Die Gewehre der Kathrin Angerer (2021). A joint production was in planning by Wiener Festwochen | Free Republic of Vienna and Pollesch for 2025. Following his sudden death, it is particularly important to Wiener Festwochen | Free Republic of Vienna to show the final play by this magnificent author and theatre maker in Vienna.