Submission (Unterwerfung)
based on the novel by Michel Houellebecq
"It is true that my atheism is based on no solid foundation; it would be presumptuous of me to say that."
It is 2022, and France is on the verge of a radical upheaval. Mohammed Ben Abbes has won the elections and is about to become the first Muslim president of a European country – a paradigm shift with far-reaching consequences for France and Europe as a whole. In the middle of all this is François, a literature professor in his mid-forties, depressed, lonely, single and a drinker. A listless intellectual and pathological individualist in a society dominated by competition that is brought to the brink of civil war following tensions between the far-right extremists of the Identitarian movement and the militant Salafists. The rising National Front and the newly formed Muslim Brotherhood (the political counterparts of these two ideological currents) have shaken up the ossified political landscape and dominated the election campaign. And now the Muslimshave won – peacefully, legally and democratically. And with Ben Abbes, France finally has another clever, charismatic and brilliant president, who quicklyand energetically pushes through his promised reforms. But what does it mean when Islam comes to power? For France, for Europe, for François? Michel Houellebecq’s Submission was coincidentally released on the day of the Charlie Hebdo attack. As a result, it was quickly and unjustly accused of being anIslamophobic dystopia. Not that it is a utopian fantasy, either.
Houellebecq’s novel explores the moment between the nightmarish end of the “old” Europe and the seductive beginning of a new golden age. In his typically humorous, starkand prophesising manner, he declares the definitive end of our economic era. Submission is not the story of a hostiletakeover; it portrays the way in which the Muslim Brotherhood suddenly becomesa genuine alternative for a secular western republic in search of meaning. Islam declares war on unfettered capitalism; as Europe falters, Islam gives it back its own values: Politics is no longer dictated by economics. Education,family, social and collective values, culture and morality are at the heart ofthe new political regime. It doesn’t sound so bad – does it?
It is 2022, and France is on the verge of a radical upheaval. Mohammed Ben Abbes has won the elections and is about to become the first Muslim president of a European country – a paradigm shift with far-reaching consequences for France and Europe as a whole. In the middle of all this is François, a literature professor in his mid-forties, depressed, lonely, single and a drinker. A listless intellectual and pathological individualist in a society dominated by competition that is brought to the brink of civil war following tensions between the far-right extremists of the Identitarian movement and the militant Salafists. The rising National Front and the newly formed Muslim Brotherhood (the political counterparts of these two ideological currents) have shaken up the ossified political landscape and dominated the election campaign. And now the Muslimshave won – peacefully, legally and democratically. And with Ben Abbes, France finally has another clever, charismatic and brilliant president, who quicklyand energetically pushes through his promised reforms. But what does it mean when Islam comes to power? For France, for Europe, for François? Michel Houellebecq’s Submission was coincidentally released on the day of the Charlie Hebdo attack. As a result, it was quickly and unjustly accused of being anIslamophobic dystopia. Not that it is a utopian fantasy, either.
Houellebecq’s novel explores the moment between the nightmarish end of the “old” Europe and the seductive beginning of a new golden age. In his typically humorous, starkand prophesising manner, he declares the definitive end of our economic era. Submission is not the story of a hostiletakeover; it portrays the way in which the Muslim Brotherhood suddenly becomesa genuine alternative for a secular western republic in search of meaning. Islam declares war on unfettered capitalism; as Europe falters, Islam gives it back its own values: Politics is no longer dictated by economics. Education,family, social and collective values, culture and morality are at the heart ofthe new political regime. It doesn’t sound so bad – does it?
Director Stephan Kimmig
Stage Katja Haß
Costumes Sigi Colpe
Music Michael Verhovec
Video Julian Krubasik
Lights Robert Grauel
Dramaturgy David Heiligers
Premiere April 22, 2016
Lorna IshemaNurse/Marie-Françoise Tanneur, colleague at University/reporter/Marine Le Pen, Front National/Myriam, student and ex-girlfriend
Camill JammalChief physician/Mohammed Ben Abbes
Marcel KohlerZivi/Lempereur/Reporter
Wolfgang Pregler
Steven ScharfFrançois, Literature professor
Nurse/Marie-Françoise Tanneur, colleague at University/reporter/Marine Le Pen, Front National/Myriam, student and ex-girlfriend
Chief physician/Mohammed Ben Abbes
Zivi/Lempereur/Reporter
François, Literature professor
Scharf comes onto the stage wearing nerdy glasses and a brown leather blouson. He blurts out scraps of monologue about survival, praying, loathing of life, in which he seems hardly to believe in himself. He leaves no doubt that the person speaking here is a geek who has lost all contact with the outside world. He comes across as a big child that once played too much on his computer and now – naïve, lonely and frustrated – is lain down on a hospital bed. This metal bed stands right in the centre of the stage. Scharf lies there for longer periods, physically reduced to the smallest radius. The isolation of the individual, and the crumbling away of emotional and social support, feature heavily in the works of director Kimmig. Submission seamlessly joins the ranks of these other works, as a psychogram of a breakdown. Like scientists in a laboratory, the audience watches how the human species is abandoned to its metaphysical suffering." With its seductive extremism, its metaphysical voids and main character in need of salvation, Submission is attractive for theatre with its politically loaded themes. Houellebecq’s first-person narrator, who slowly drifts into Islam, gives an insight into the inner life of a frustrated western European intellectual. (…)
Scharf comes onto the stage wearing nerdy glasses and a brown leather blouson. He blurts out scraps of monologue about survival, praying, loathing of life, in which he seems hardly to believe in himself. He leaves no doubt that the person speaking here is a geek who has lost all contact with the outside world. He comes across as a big child that once played too much on his computer and now – naïve, lonely and frustrated – is lain down on a hospital bed. This metal bed stands right in the centre of the stage. Scharf lies there for longer periods, physically reduced to the smallest radius. The isolation of the individual, and the crumbling away of emotional and social support, feature heavily in the works of director Kimmig. Submission seamlessly joins the ranks of these other works, as a psychogram of a breakdown. Like scientists in a laboratory, the audience watches how the human species is abandoned to its metaphysical suffering."