The One-legged Runner

Katharina Schmitt’s play The One-legged Runner is about the relationship between spectator and athlete who becomes the perfect screen to project on in the context of modern spectacle. In this way, Schmitt discusses the phenomenon of transmission by approaching it from an unexpected perspective.

At the beginning of a car race, an obese spectator catatonically sits in the grandstand, trying to strike up a conversation with the driver who barely notices his fan, remains utterly self-centered and then chimerically disappears into thin air. The car itself raises its voice to explain the rules of the competition. The racecar driver combusts into flames, and this accident is mercilessly documented by the athlete himself, as well as by journalists, while the spectator keeps pushing the replay button. The compulsive appeal of the characters is reflected in their painstaking cadences of style which irresistibly draw you in.