Contrary to rumors to the contrary, Manfred Zapatka does not want to stop playing. At 79 he even celebrates his debut at the Deutsches Theater.
We talked to the theater star and villain from various TV thrillers and “Rivals of the Racetrack” about his retirement and the premiere of “Extinction. Ein Zerfall” based on Thomas Bernhard (1931–1989) (the premiere was postponed to June 4 due to illness). He got to know the author personally back then.
BZ: I thought you were going to retire?
Manfred Zapatka: A fatal mistake, because several misunderstandings have accumulated. I never wanted to stop completely, I just wanted to leave the Residenztheater in Munich at the same time as the artistic director, Martin Kušej. Since then, every theater and every film company has been asking me, very cautiously, if I couldn’t still introduce myself… Yes, of course, I’m not retired!
Why Berlin?
Zapatka: I admit that my first choice would have been Hamburg, we even looked at an apartment there. We still have my parents’ house in Cloppenburg, to which I am very attached. From Hamburg you would be there quickly, from Munich it had become too far. You spend a whole day there. Berlin was a compromise. And so we moved to Halensee in mid-December.
Do you miss Munich? They lived there for decades.
My home is my job and my family. But Munich and Berlin are different. From Munich you can quickly get to Cortina, Venice and Austria anyway. Well, we did all that. That’s how I was lured to Munich at the time. “The fee isn’t that high … but the environment is.”
Now you are playing at the Deutsches Theater for the first time. How did that happen?
Through the dramaturge Rita Thiele, who I have known for a long time. She called me too… “Would you maybe…?”
What is it like stepping onto a new stage again at the age of 79?
It’s adventurous. But I have very nice colleagues and an excellent director who inspires me very much. For me it is always a miracle that different people, of different ages and different ways of thinking meet in the theater and in the end something comes together.
You play the father in the dramatization of Thomas Bernhard’s novel “Extinction”. Have you ever met the author?
Yes, as a young actor with Peymann in Stuttgart, where I played for a long time. Bernhard always stopped by, we also went out to eat together. He was a funny and very, very nice person. It was clear to all of us back then that his work is and will remain of high quality. His texts are as if written with a streaky bow.
You worked purposefully towards the premiere – then it had to be postponed due to illness. How do you feel in such a situation?
That is a difficult question. But if I’m honest, it was a big disappointment for me, the interruption. I’m all the happier now that it will work.
The play is about difficult charged family relationships. Do you know that too?
Who does not know that! Family is a similarly difficult enterprise as democracy. I remembered the last years of the war as a child. We were bombed out twice in Bremen, my mother was alone with three children during the war. In 1946 my father came back from British captivity. I didn’t even know him, but I recognized him. I was home from playing outside when I saw him and I said, “Mom, dad is coming.” And my mom didn’t believe me, but he actually did. The post-war period was not easy. For all. The women had had to learn to stand up for themselves over the years and suddenly the men were back and wanted their roles back.
The war in Ukraine…
… scares me very much. I wouldn’t have thought it possible for a person to start a war in Europe these days. This is really getting to me. When I come home in the evening, I have to consciously switch off.
You experienced the economic miracle and the golden years of the Federal Republic.
But first of all there was not enough money at home. After I graduated from high school, things got better. Nevertheless, I had to earn my degree as a working student, work for the roofers or in the steelworks at the punching machine. But that was dangerous. I thought to myself: if you fall asleep here, your hand will be off. Then I was allowed to do something else: paint pipes and drink milk.
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Milk?
Yes, you got them for free and you should drink them. I suspect today: Because it was probably unhealthy, but I wasn’t told that.
Why are you still playing at 79?
Life is more than withdrawing pension, gambling has always been my life. This profession is a kind of vocation. I’ve always liked doing it and I’ve also dealt with the difficulties when there was hostility.