NEEDS – Kritik der Bedürfnisse

Between the team dressing room and the pub bar, dreams of social advancement and environmental sustainability – once the haze of greased fries and countless Marlboros has cleared, new visions for German football emerge in NEEDS – Kritik der Bedürfnisse. Three club members are in the midst of preparations for an anniversary celebration – and end up at loggerheads. What matters more: tradition or change? The football club, a place of bratwurst, beer and machismo, becomes a zone of negotiation. Can football be different?

Team Sisyphos’ production captivates as playful folk theatre in Adidas tracksuits. It showcases the passion for sport as the social glue of society, but also reveals the dark side when commercialisation threatens the small clubs. With great ease, the play shifts between ecstatic devotion to the sport and radical critique of human needs, served up as accessibly as a portion of red and white fries: theories by Marx, Adorno and Marcuse flash by, linking critique of consumption in industrial capitalism with questions of profit, the pressure to perform and invisible care work.

The squabbles at SJC Hövelriege unfold like an intimate drama in the clubhouse – a clash between reality and myth, the provinces and the Olympic gods. But who actually belongs here? What defines a club? Amidst all the chaos, as if in an embrace between Herberger and Horkheimer, one thing remains certain: the ball is round, the world is capitalist – and the (theatrical) match lasts (almost) 90 minutes.

Text: Thusnelda Marín Jungmann for FAVORITEN Festival

Text: Thusnelda Marín Jungmann für das FAVORITEN Festival