Almost all buildings have emergency exits, alarm systems and fire protection. But relations have no visible escape routes, fire blankets or sprinkler systems. In the event of calamities, it often comes down to walking towards the seat of the fire, blinded and suffocated.
Daniel (Ali-Ben Horsting) designs escape routes in parking garages, but sees no way out of his worn-out marriage to Sybille (Hanne Arendzen). In their tense minefield dialogues, in which they constantly measure each other between thickened silences, each sentence is a potential danger. When Daniels ex Franziska (Alejandra Theus) is also at the door, the melting ice floe on which the two stand gets an extra blow.
Ex is on the one hand a fairly predictable, old-fashioned living room drama that focuses on rather problematic male-female relationships: two women fighting over a man, while that man is mainly concerned with his own happiness and success. Fortunately, the contours of an underlying, more interesting engagement are gradually becoming apparent. Theater author Marius von Mayenburg wants to talk about how social inequality is inextricably intertwined in our interpersonal interactions and its far-reaching consequences: from the bathing tone we casually use at people we classify as a lower class, to the choices we make when it comes to is about relationships. The inconvenient truth is: an architect can have a lot of fun with a shopkeeper for a long time, but there is a good chance that he will eventually choose a (less nice) doctor.
Read also this interview with Hanne Arendsen
Overwhelming acting fireworks
Without a doubt the biggest pivot in this direction by Albert Lubbers is the stunning acting fireworks. As Franziska, Theus takes the hard truth for her with open and empathetic play, vulnerable and combative, she is constantly looking for new solid ground under her feet. And Arendzen really plays to the best of her ability: Sybille is villainous and merciless, but behind it is a life of disillusionment, loneliness and accumulated sadness. Her character is as much a ruthless beast as it is tipsy game. The confrontations between her and Franziska take your breath away.
Theatergroep Suburbia, for example, shows how phenomenal play can still lift a mediocre piece. Horsting has the hardest time in that regard, in the sense that Daniel is undeniably an unsympathetic character, who cares more about his career than about his children, likes to wallow in self-imposed victimization and thereby loses sight of all empathy. Horsting interprets him with great taste, humanity and compassion, although it is simply impossible to completely escape from Von Mayenburg’s inadequate text.