An and a at Nationaltheater Mannheim

Grete and Jakob are academics in precarious job situations, and in their work deal with love lyrics and the social constructions of desire. They have both been disappointed by the actual existing market for love and have turned away from this in favour of theory. It is becoming increasingly unlikely that they themselves could ever again be involved in a feeling of being emotionally overwhelmed. This is also one reason why they react awkwardly and shyly when they meet one day in the supermarket and are enchanted by one another in front of the refrigerated section. The fact that their coming closer together has little to do with short stories about love, which they know from their work, makes them doubt their feelings. But after a hesitant start, Grete and Jakob begin to defend their being together against the society of spectacle and its performance expectations. They fight for their own form of brittle affection, to which they don’t want to give a name, and they fluctuate between being spellbound and an ironic distance. They are accompanied, annoyed and challenged on their way by the usual spoilsports: by employers, supervisors, ex-boyfriends, by supermarket cashiers and by the internet. Even animals begin talking when they see this strangely stubborn couple and ask them shady questions. Grete and Jakob have to pass exams, growing beyond themselves in their struggle, and at the end almost believe for a moment that their love is forever.

Martin Heckmanns, born in 1971, studied comparative literature, history and philosophy and lives as a writer in Berlin. With Schieß doch, Kaufhaus! he was voted in the critics’ poll of »Theater heute« the up-and-coming writer of the year in 2002 and won the audience prize at the Mülheimer Theatertagen in 2003 for Schieß doch, Kaufhaus! and in 2004 for Kränk. Einer und Eine has been commissioned by the Nationaltheater.