My Struggle in Bochum: George Tabori's grotesque meets historical responsibility
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George Tabori's bitterly cynical farce at the Kammerspiele Bochum
On December 30, 2026, the Schauspielhaus Bochum will present George Tabori's famous grotesque My Struggle on stage at the Kammerspiele. Johan Simons directs a play that connects historical responsibility, Jewish memory culture, and the mechanisms of political radicalization with dark humor and disturbing comedy.
A meeting that tells history differently
Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century: In a homeless shelter beneath a butcher shop, the Jewish bookseller Schlomo Herzl encounters a young, impoverished man from the provinces. This stranger dreams of being accepted at the art academy and will later become known as Adolf Hitler. Tabori focuses the historical material on a grotesque encounter in which helpfulness, naivety, and political seduction dangerously intertwine.
George Tabori's linguistic art between grotesque and abyss
My Struggle is not an adaptation of Hitler's political writing, but a black comedy by the Jewish playwright, author, and director George Tabori. The farce employs exaggeration, absurd dialogues, and bitter wit. It is precisely in this contradictory form that the play gains its literary quality: it makes the monstrous visible without glorifying it.
Johan Simons and a strong ensemble
Director Johan Simons stages Tabori's most famous play at the Kammerspiele Bochum. On stage are Pierre Bokma as Herzl, Stefan Hunstein as Lobkowitz, Payam Yazdani as Hitler, Nina Steils as Gretchen, Veronika Nickl as Frau Tod, and Lukas von der Lühe as Himmlisch. Set and costumes are by Aleksandar Denić and Adriana Braga Peretzki.
Reading proximity, theatrical intensity, and cultural discourse
Although the evening is structured as a play, the performance develops a particular closeness to the literary source. Voice, dialogue rhythm, and linguistic precision carry the narrative construction through changing tones: from comic verbal duels to moments of historical tension. The reading atmosphere is created not by mere recitation but by the immediate author encounter with a text that poses its questions in the space.
A theater evening with political relevance
Tabori's play questions how a seemingly insignificant person can become a political seducer and what responsibility lies in dealing with one's own enemy. The production connects literary analysis, historical memory, and contemporary cultural discourse. The title provokes, but the real attention is on how language, exclusion, and power emerge.
The performance begins on Wednesday, December 30, 2026, at 7:30 PM. An introduction is already scheduled for 7:00 PM. The venue is the Kammerspiele of the Schauspielhaus Bochum at Königstraße 15.
Conclusion: An evening between dark humor and historical responsibility
Visitors can expect a concentrated literary experience with precise linguistic art, strong ensemble work, and an unusual perspective on the early Vienna years of Adolf Hitler. Those who experience theater as a place of confrontation, memory, and intellectual friction will find an intense evening in this performance. My Struggle is worth the immediate encounter on stage.
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