Animal Farm

Animals to power - and the world will be a better place!

In the fairytale land of Rheintal, the animals on a farm have taken over the scepter. Freed from humans, they set the tone, and at last, true life begins. In times when humans are recklessly striving to destroy the Earth, such a social revolution, as envisioned by Orwell, would be a comforting utopia that lets one breathe easy: Animals take matters of life into their own hands, or rather paws and claws. Society is reconstituting itself - without capital, surplus value, and money. Ranisch and Rupf enter the arena of many animal figures and exemplarily demonstrate how a new coexistence arises, where supposedly everyone is well off; some, of course, are doing even better, but not everyone knows that. The two actors counter the text with seductive songs and antics from the repertoire of agitprop as well as bittersweet Swiss songs. In doing so, the protagonists throw themselves into absurd choreographies, folk dances, and singing performances. These interruptions give the story a special spice and sharpen the view of the seemingly fairytale-like nature of its current relevance. Orwell's novel bears the consciously trivializing subtitle A Fairytale. Yet fairytales are not just beautiful. They can also be wicked: Wolves eat grandmothers, stepmothers assassinate daughters, and witches end up in the oven. And what initially appears as a harmless children's story by Orwell turns out to be a hard-hitting, satirical indictment of totalitarian systems. For as soon as everyone is equal, some become more equal. And the clever pigs expand their dominance into a dictatorship...