It is the stories that life itself writes that often move us most. "Ziemlich beste Freunde" is one of those true stories that has brought audiences around the world to tears. The cinema film became a worldwide success. But the stage play of the same name at the Hamburger Kammerspiele also casts a spell over the audience, making them laugh and cry. "Audiences celebrate the play every single time. That mood naturally sweeps us actors along too. Night after night, it's a pleasure to perform the story," Herbert Schöberl recounts. He plays two smaller roles in the play. First, he is the lawyer of the paraplegic Philippe, played by Hardy Krüger Jr., advising him against hiring the welfare recipient Driss, played by Patrick Abozen, as his carer. But the well-to-do Philippe is impressed by Driss's unsparing manner and takes him on. Across all their differences, an extraordinary friendship gently develops, in the course of which Philippe regains his joy in life and Driss learns what it means to take responsibility. Yet after a few months Driss gives up his position and Philippe has to search for a carer all over again. Herbert Schöberl plays one of these disastrous applicants. "I think the story moves people because it is true. Of course the play is also very well received because it has such a prominent cast. Hardy Krüger Jr. and Patrick Abozen play the two friends with great dedication and joy." The successful French director Jean-Claude Berutti has, moreover, found a very fine way of staging the story for the theatre, Schöberl recounts. Stirring film scenes, such as the paragliding flight Philippe and Driss take together, are not re-enacted on stage; instead the two tell of it when they return home from their excursion. The images come to mind quite automatically, even without the film camera.
Further dates at the Hamburger Kammerspiele: 14 April 2017 / 15 April 2017 each at 20:00; 16 April 2017 / 17 April 2017 each at 19:00; 18 April 2017 at 20:00