Die Nebenwirkungen

Universitätsring 2

1010 Wien

 

Translated from American English by Frank Heibert

The so-called “Tocqueville paradox,” developed by Alexis de Tocqueville in his 1835 book “On Democracy in America,” states that anger at and resistance to privilege and injustice increases as the injustices themselves decrease. According to the inventor of modern political science, if there is nothing but injustice everywhere, then the individual inequality is no longer noticeable, while in a situation of largely equality even the slightest deviation is intolerable.
The parents' council of the progressive private school where Jonathan Spector's play takes place works hard day in and day out to make the last differences visible and disappear. Everyone should feel welcome, heard and seen at this school for a better life. When a mumps epidemic breaks out, the committee is confronted with a regulation from the school authorities that from now on only vaccinated students are allowed to take part in classes, but the well-established consensus democracy is thrown into turmoil.

Jonathan Spector's tragicomedy, which was created in 2018, takes all the unforgiveness of recent years to the extreme and makes the underlying questions visible: What do we mean by democracy? How do we want to make decisions? What opportunities for involvement and participation should there be? Do the interests of the community have their limits on individual freedom? Or rather the other way around?

 

(Source: burgtheater.at)