The funniest thing in Lola Randl‘s (DIE ERFINDUNG DER LIEBE) new comedy might be the architecture. FÜHLEN SIE SICH MANCHMAL AUSGEBRANNT UND LEER? Is set in a bourgeois suburban world that looks like a shabbier version of fake Seahaven from THE TRUMAN SHOW,or if Jacques Tati went postmodern. Slanting angles and bold pastel tones simulate a avantgarde that in direct relation to the square lifestyles of the protagonists and the topiary hedges all around. Lina Beckmann plays a flaky couples therapist, Charly Hübner plays her sedate husband Richard ,and Benno Fürmann is Leopold, Luisa‘s lover who is also Richard‘s partner in the model house business. Sebastian Weber also appears in a trenchcoat as a professional assassin/neighbor. The mistaken identity/sex comedy gains momentum when Luisa wakes up one morning to find her doppelgänger next to her. Luisa takes pills, calls her therapist, and panics. But since the “panic attack“ she calls Ann is already there, she might as well put her to good use: she tells Ann to spend the weekend with Richard so she can go on tour with Leopold. That works better than imagined. Ann is just as flaky as Luisa but in a much better mood and naive in a way that everyone finds very charming. She likes eating, loves sex, and doesn‘t think too much about it. Randli and her team put a lot of slapstick and robust physical comedy to the burlesque display in a way that is reminiscent of Ottot or Mr. Bean and that Lina Beckmann is especially perfectly suited for.

Toni Ohms

Translation: Elinor Lewy