Der Stiefel und sein Socken (The Boot and its Sock)

Stroboscopic lighting is used during this performance.

The play «Der Stiefel und sein Socken» (The Boot and its Sock) by the universal artist Herbert Achternbusch who died in Munich in January 2022 is perhaps his most personal work. At the same time, it is a wonderful comedy full of kindness, poetry and absurdity. It centres on the poet Herbert and his lifelong companion Fanny, who live together in a manner reminiscent of Samuel Beckett’s «Endgame». Fanny and Herbert show no signs of being aware that any world exists beyond their own reality. Whenever this does impinge upon them, it is swiftly made part of the game they play and their own fantasy world. Their life is one huge «play», fuelled and shaped by their fear of losing each other, their fear of being alone – or, as Achternbusch puts it: suddenly your boot has no sock.