solastalgia

The forest is dying. Wildfires, droughts and pest infestations are rapidly decimating the tree population. But what is even more drastic is how we humans exploit the forest. The main characters in Thomas Köck’s play SOLASTALGIA are a nameless first-person narrator and a former forest ranger. The setting is a German spruce forest, which is strictly speaking a Norway spruce forest, soon to be a North American Douglas fir forest. Ever faster-growing non-native species need to be imported to cover the demand for wood. Both characters are aware of the impending disastrous consequence of monoculture and deforestation – namely, that there will be no nature left for future generations: “this habitat / will no longer need us / this landscape / does not want us at all,” the first-person narrator says. “we are fucked / like never before.”

The term SOLASTALGIA, coined by environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht, refers to the loss of a comforting, beloved place. The destruction of the environment and climate change are central themes in the work of playwright Thomas Köck, whose play ANTIGONE. EIN REQUIEM was staged at the Akademietheater in 2020. In the form of a poetic, sharp-tongued stream of thought, Köck intertwines the loss of our collective home, the forest, and the loss of a father figure – the downfall of both caused by society’s perverted greed for profit. Between dead trees, the narrator has memories of the suicide attempt of his father – a joiner who was supposed to help build that very psychiatric clinic he was committed to as a patient after losing his livelihood. Together with students from the Max Reinhardt Seminar, Christina Rast brings this play for young audiences to the Kasino.