auf der suche
nach dem verlorenen
bagger

A child throws many questions at the world. The world throws an excavator back at him.

Alfi is only five years old, but he is already asking the question of all questions: What happens when you’re dead? None of the adults can answer his question, and his grief over a dead pigeon lying next to the bench in the park is not understood either: a child must conquer the future, rather than dwell on the question of death. He is supposed to grow up to be big and strong, ideally a Nobel laureate or a politician – he mustn’t be a whinger. A child who ponders grief and transience appears to be a flaw in the system.

We all know: in bourgeois capitalist society, consumption serves to repress thoughts of death. Alfi is given a yellow jacket that’s too big, which he doesn’t actually want, two scoops of ice cream and – if his secret plan works – a new toy digger too. He does already have one, but it’s the ugliest digger in the whole world. He makes it disappear and reports it missing to the police, so that his mother understands how serious he is and buys him a new, nicer digger. With a remote control. And maybe a trip to McDonald’s on the way back.

But the plan goes awry: the policewoman takes the loss far too seriously; she takes him to the lost property office, involves a politician, and turns to the television. The search becomes a public spectacle with no room for grief; and death no longer appears as a terrifying mystery, but as a mundane void that must be filled at any cost.

Following the success of zwei herren von real madrid, Leo Meiers’ new play offers a fresh perspective on the world in language that is only seemingly naive: auf der suche nach dem verlorenen bagger explores how (or rather, how not) our society deals with death. Charlotte Weidinger, who is completing her directing studies at the Folkwang University of the Arts with this production, tells a story of childhood, grief and loss – and does so in a highly comical manner.