Mein kleines Prachttier

How does love become violence? At what point do longings turn into assaults? How can we escape the mechanisms of violence that shape our society, and what can we do to counter them?

The story of a veterinarian and his ‘chosen one’ – a young farmer’s daughter – is a great love story that touches the limits of what can be said. A highly ambivalent introspection into a claustrophobic world, where the desire and love between the two turn into violence. This is a text that creates a space for the longing for words in a world of speechlessness and silence.

Director Leonie Böhm, known for her radical deconstructions of classical works, is returning to the Münchner Kammerspiele following her productions of “Die Räuberinnen” and “Yung Faust”. And this time, she is taking a contemporary text as her starting point. In her work, Böhm focuses on creating an intimate space on stage with her actors to explore different forms of living together – in a radically open and vulnerable manner.

In search of a dialogue and togetherness that does not reproduce violence anew, this play is about love and the absolute necessity of entering into a different kind of togetherness.

“For me, the spectacular thing about “My Heavenly Favourite” is that an author imagines the perspective of a perpetrator which accomplishes something, i.e. it contributes to the way the addressed topics change the discourse and the way we think about the whole issue. This perpetrator’s perspective bares all, explains itself, puts itself up for discussion, attempts to put itself into words, attempts to recognise itself, attempts to make itself vulnerable. Putting oneself up for discussion, dragging oneself into visibility with all one’s thoughts, feelings and actions – that is the political act embarked upon by this book which, on the one hand, is fictional and, on the other, has actually changed my way of thinking.”

– Leonie Böhm