“Low German” Theatre in Bremerhaven: “The Physicists” by Dürrenmatt

In terms of linguistics, Low German (Plattdeutsch) is a language of its own, not a dialect, and not derived from High German. Geographically, it is found in the German federal states of Bremen, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein, and the northern part of North Rhine-Westphalia. On average, some 16% of the population of these federal states speak the Low German language. Many activities are taking place across society and many of those are financially supported by the federal states to secure the continued existence of the Low German language. Professional and amateur theatre companies and groups are part of this endeavour.

The Bremerhaven-based Niederdeutsche Bühne Waterkant (Lower German North Sea Coast Theatre) was founded in 1920 and had its first guest performance in the municipal theatre of Bremerhaven in 1925. It became an integral part of the municipal theatre between 1940 and 1944 (when the building was destroyed in an air raid attack). From 1947 to 1972, the company was based in two different local schools. Since 1972, the company has had its permanent home in the smaller venue (100 seats, proscenium stage) of the municipal theatre of Bremerhaven, where it presents around 20 performances each of three major productions per year. The performers are unpaid amateurs, who work with a professional director and are supported by the municipal theatre’s design and dramaturgy teams.

The Niederdeutsche Bühne Waterkant’s third production of the 2025/26 season was a Low German translation by Heino Buerhoop of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s Die Physiker.  The play was set in a psychiatric institution, run by Dr. Mathilde von Zahnd. One of the inmates, Moebius, is a physicist who has chosen to be in this institution to prevent the world finding out about his discovery, which is ground-breaking but also threatens the survival of humankind. He pretends to hear the voice of Salomon. The other two central inmates, one believing to be Einstein, the other Newton, are in fact physicists working for competing secret services, intent on finding out about Moebius’s discovery. Each of the three men has murdered, or will murder, in the course of the play, one of the nurses (they had fallen in love with the nurses and the nurses had begun to doubt the respective men’s insanity, threatening to blow their cover). In the end, it turns out that the institution’s owner, Dr von Zahnd, is genuinely mentally deranged: over the years, she has taken Moebius’s findings, built a world-encompassing empire on its basis, and has set the three physicists up with the nurses to ensure nobody in the outside world will ever believe what insane murderers are claiming as the truth.

The Bremerhaven production was directed by Martin Kemner, who has been associated with the municipal theatre of Bremerhaven since he first joined the resident company as an actor from 1993-1995. In the simple and functional set, the plot developed smoothly, some scenes had been judiciously cut from the original text, especially the meeting of Moebius and his children, his estranged wife and her new husband. Emil Niczyporuk appeared in the front row of the auditorium at the start of the performance, and at the end of the interval, looked menacingly at the audience through his sunglasses, muttered into an old-style walkie talkie, and disappeared. He was later revealed to be Sievers, the head of von Zahnd’s private secret police, and posing as a nurse in her institution. He came across convincingly as threatening and was darkly funny when he served and removed the dishes for the physicist’s meal, clumsily laying the table and very close to smashing the porcelain, especially when he removed the crockery after the meal. Regina Bührig was believably menacing as she increasingly revealed her character’s state of mental derangement. Current world politics and its key players could not have been predicted more accurately than by this character in Dürrenmatt’s play. Henning Ahrens gave the average appearance of Moebius a strong profile – think Tom Hanks as Mr Average in so many films! Rainer Oetjen and Wolfgang Wellbrock as Einstein and Newton, respectively, clearly enjoyed playing their scenes of “madness” in their assumed roles. They were equally convincing when they dropped their cover and revealed their genuine identities as physicists admiring Moebius’s achievement and genuinely believing the states they represented would be best placed to make the best of Moebius’s discovery. Ramazan Akbulut was funny as the police inspector investigating the murders of the three nurses, Maren Franke as nurse Monika, killed onstage by Moebius (in a distancing, surreal scene) combined the strength the character needed as a nurse with suitable expressions of her love for Moebius. In a clever directorial move, the prompt (Anika Frerks) was always present on the side of the stage, in the role of a silent secretary.