From Struwwelpeter to Hamlet

A long-haired would-be rebel, that’s who I was. The long hair was phony and so were the pasted-on fingernails back then when I, at the age of six, got to play the ungroomed and unmanicured Struwwelpeter. But the self-styled rebel turned out to be the real thing! For that’s when I discovered him in me ...
Speak, sing, ACT! Play something out, perform before spectators, put on an act in front of an audience ... and notice: I’m not even acting. That’s the real me. That’s who I am.
A gift for life is what my teacher presented to me back then. From Struwwelpeter to Hamlet isn’t that long a path. And by that I don’t mean that putting on a play is only important for children when they grow up to be actors!
Whoever gets the chance in school to act in a play or to play music is the beneficiary of a significant “bonus” in the process of becoming an adult. And just what would that be? Hard to say exactly. It’s a matter of feeling, of sensing. The essence is invisible to the eye! The whole thing doesn’t function directly; it’s rather like a billiard ball caroming off the rails at all angles. Verse, rhyme, learning lines by heart. Poetry, music: they’re the most superfluous—any yet the most indispensable—spice of life.
I wish the Capital of Culture project “(The title is up to you!)” under the direction of Airan Berg great success from the bottom of my heart! It’s wonderful that you’re doing this.

Klaus Maria Brandauer
back