KRAPP’S LAST TAPE

Michael Altmann -Germany

Krapp, this weird old man in search of his memories of better days, reviewing his life by listening to recordings he has made a long time ago, has been played by many exquisite actors: Fritz Kortner, Bernhard Minetti and Ulrich Wildgruber, to name just a few. These are big names, but Michael Altmann from the Thalia Theater in Hamburg can stand comparison with all of them. His Krapp is most convincing and not influenced by others. This stumbling, shuffling, pedantic eccentric with gray, wild hair, in a greasy waistcoat, with insatiable appetite for bananas is a grotesque figure, but much more than a pathetic freak. He listens to his past and rebels against it, fiddling around with the tapes, fast-forwarding them, and repressing the unwanted fragments. With caustic cynicism, he roars, gasps, swears and groans -until he finally finds what he was looking for: the memory of a beautiful afternoon on a lake with a long-lost love.

Directed by: Gabriele Jacobi

80 minutes; in German

Sunday, March 4 /Die Pumpe/ 20:30