Mao and I

A hotel and convention center in the Chinese megacity Chongqing. Ruth and Marek who, for many years, have specifically not been an item, are supposed to lecture on international cultural exchange. Surprisingly here, far away from home, the two Western Europeans meet their own selves of all people - even though it is a different self from what they expected. Ruth gains insights into her husband’s past which rather leads to new questions than to answers, whereas Marek accidentally runs into Lars, his father in law, an old school globetrotter whose adventures are in almost humiliating contrast to Marek's own boring life, which is only alleviated occasionally when he makes up different life stories. He does not yet know that Lars himself keeps a few secrets. For all of them there is a clash of their well-loved fictions with an unfamiliar reality that becomes more and more unrealistic; and all sense of time and space becomes blurry.

Ulrike Syha calls her play a "film for the theater" for good reason. Super-imposed on her conflict-charged play and laconic-sarcastic dialogues is the hustle and bustle of a megacity where everyday life has no time to consider the individual, and moves along briskly on its way into the 22nd century.