There’s a lot to munch on in ‘Mann, Mann, Mann’, but the frenzy makes it a lot of fun ★★★★☆

‘He is the greatest German writer of the 20th century.’ Erika Mann reads it, including a slip of the tongue, almost disgusted by the back cover of a novel by her father, Thomas Mann. Thus begins a boozy evening that degenerates into an intellectual wrestling match.

Erika sits with her brothers Klaus and Golo Mann in a 20th-century living room: smoking heavily, a record player in the corner and a wall full of white slats. The tower is blown high by the three privileged semi-losers. Just a few topics: masturbation, art, therapy and the suffocating shadow of their father, in which all three had to live their entire lives and in which, as one of them says, only thistles can grow.

Mann Mann Mann is a performance by theater group Amsterdam (formerly De Warme Winkel) about three thistles that refuse to become a bouquet, conceived and performed by Florian Myjer, Kim Karssen and Ludwig Bindervoet. The slightly sad biographies of three of Thomas Mann’s six children form the starting point and common thread. There is tasty fulmination on ‘papa’, which they call ‘the wizard’. They ridicule each other’s literary work. And in a hallucinatory way Karssen as Erika plays sketches and songs from her ‘anti-fascist cabaret’ Die Pfeffermühle.

Gradually, the narration and personal obsessions of the players intertwine. Suddenly Klaus tells a story about a certain Florian from the theater group ‘der heiße Laden’, Golo ignites a passionate speech about the riots on the Coolsingel and Erika starts talking about her insecurity. There’s a lot to munch on here, but the theatrical richness and frenzy make it a lot of fun. As an audience you imagine yourself as a voyeur, witnessing an intimate, immersive therapy session.