Everything is big

“Ah, you don’t have to understand everything down to the last detail – you just have to: live”

He works where others rarely wish to linger: at Rosenberg Cemetery in Winterthur. As a gravedigger, he accompanies people through the final moments of their farewell. He hears the music of a life well-lived, witnesses families caught between grief and indifference, and observes how entire life stories are reflected in the space of a few moments. Over time, this work changes his view of people – and of himself. For in the midst of his daily encounters with death, he discovers something unexpected: a new appreciation for life. Amidst urns, gravestones and the quiet routines of the cemetery, thoughts on dying emerge that are rarely heard – unspectacular, precise and often laced with dry humour. After all, anyone carrying an urn mustn’t slip.

In ALLES IST GROSS, Zsuzsa Bánk tells the story of a man who is indispensable and yet is supposed to remain invisible. With great precision and warmth, the play zooms in on a single life, posing fundamental questions in the process: When has a life been lived ‘properly’? Are there small lives and big lives? Why are all people always seen as good after they die? And why, in the face of death, do we seek signs, order and meaning in our lives, which seem so small beneath the infinitely vast sky?

An evening of theatre about saying goodbye, humanity and the great art of celebrating life.

An in-house production by Zsuzsa Bánk
WITH Matthias Kurmann
LIVE MUSIC Marcel Gschwend aka Bit-Tuner
DIRECTOR Annina Dullin
SET DESIGN Beni Küng
COSTUME DESIGN Nina Steinemann
DRAMATURGY Fadrina Arpagaus
Swiss premiere

Supported by Migros Kulturprozent, the S. Eustachius Foundation, the Dr Adolf Streuli Foundation and the Josef P. and Nelly Spiess-Mohn Foundation.