With the pippi longstocking song she hops with flying red pigtails through the crowd onto the stage. "Two times three makes four, widdewiddewitt, and three makes nine! I do" the world, widdewidde, as i like it. Trallari trallahey tralla hoppsasa". Mathematics is not their coarse strong. And also the letter reading they prefer to leave to their girlfriend attika. School treasures them only because of the vacations. The song, with which the audience goes along, will be played many times during the one and a quarter hours of the show (plus 20 minutes of intermission) and pippi’s colorful imagination, her unhumbledness, her verve will drive old and young along.
For the production of astrid lindgren’s pippi langstrumpf on the wehlitzer berg, andre putzmann and dieter krause have created a stage set that looks modest at first: pippi’s villa colorful on the right on the hill, in front of it on the veranda her spotted white apple "herr nielsen". But in the course of the game, as if by magic, moving dummies appear on the stage. The witty ideas always get a laugh from the audience: in the foreground a swanky mercedes rolls in, between the rocks far behind the wildly swaying "hoppetosse" appears with their red sail and the gehisster klabauterflagge. Or a rowing boat will appear in the sea with two thieves who want to rob pippi and her friends of the pearls dived in taka-tuka-land. The lack of realistic props is intentional. Director raik knorscheidt wants to open up the imagination of the children.
Appearance agony ghosts
But before pippi can set off on a rough ride with her friends, she has to fend off some annoying fellows. There comes one, he calls himself "fine gentleman", the makes on dickmax (rudiger zenker). As a real estate speculator he wanted to buy the villa kunterbunt for a ridiculous price, the "bruchbude rubbing down and trees falling. The owner goes for the guy’s plaid jacket, so that he misses his cigar smoking and has to curse himself into the arms of the policeman. No less unpleasant for pippi are the two staid women prysselius and granberg. They would like to padagogize the girl living alone, save her from bad company and put her in a children’s home if possible. Sonja hottung and anna-lena bollinger play her not as authoritarian terrors, but as concerned neighbors. But annika and tommy’s parents (georgia lauterbach, rudiger zenker) are exemplary. They give their children space, trust them and let them travel to taka-tuka land.
Many scenes are effectively staged. You can see that raik knorscheidt works intensively with the young actors. Above all, however, the fact that he comes from the musical theater. There is a lot of dancing, the actors unite in colorful choreographies, wild bardic chants are sung, pirate songs like the immortal "what shall we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning??" Intones. The "heja-heja-ho" goes through marrow and leg. Particularly imaginative is the rhythm of the children on simple instruments. Everything can become a percussion instrument, from the washboard to cutlery and plates to a huge soup pot.
The characters are all well drawn. The postwoman (diana bettge-luthardt), for example, who is supposed to deliver a letter to pippilotta viktualia rollgardina pfefferminz langstrumpf from her father. From pippi’s search for the word "spunk is so irritated that, without handing in the letter, she goes on her way. A great part plays andreas kiebling as friedolf, a well-built splendorous man and right hand of the kapt’ns. With his unbridled appetite and good humor, he plays his way into the hearts of the spectators. It must be him, of course, on whose nose pippi has put the "spunk" discovers – an unknown species of kafer. The adventurous captain langstrumpf is also well cast with michael vogler. With his black coat, black pirate stalks and golden ears (costume: wolfram muller-broeder) he seems to be a fearsome pirate, but at his core he is soft and infinitely pippi-loving, including big bang kisses.
After the intermission the charms of the sudsee island are unfolded. Pippi and her two friends annika and tommy can chill on their deck chairs and shuffle coconut milk. Father longstocking doesn’t get bored either: he goes on a wild boar hunt on the neighboring island or has his beard stroked by an attractive native girl (georgia lauterbach). Knorscheidt puts the islanders in brightly colored fantasy costumes, and the young and very young actors are eager to get started. In the end, pippi and her friends are on top form. Pippi has to fend off the attack of three sharks (paula and emma kebler, klara holzheu) circling around a rowboat. And she has to send the two inmates (romana hofmann, miriam dobel), who turn out to be uble thieves and blackmailers, packing.
The three main actresses shoulder their long speaking roles bravouros. Sophia weinmann is an enchanting annika, attractive, stage pompous, with a graceful expression. Elena helmrich plays her brother tommy. It’s great how she can settle into a boy’s role. She plays him as a nice and friendly, sometimes tomboyish boy. 15-year-old franziska borfeldt succeeds in a brilliant performance in the role of the title character. With her redhead, her little hanger, her two-tone stockings dangling mooingly from garters, she is a typical pippi. But also in her expression: she is a whirlwind. Your happiness is contagious. With her self-confident appearance, her open face, she captivates the spectators. She’s energetic, vocal, knows how to get her way, and not just when she’s stomping her fub hard. But she is also sensitive. A strong girl – if only she could make friends with math a little bit!