The World Behind Us | Guest performance at the Kurtheater Baden

THE WORLD BEHIND YOU, based on the novel by Thomas Melle – Swiss premiere.

‘If you are bipolar, your life no longer has any continuity. The illness has shattered your past, and to an even greater extent, it threatens your future. With every manic episode, your life as you knew it becomes increasingly unrecognisable. The person you thought you were and knew no longer has a firm foundation. You can no longer be sure of yourself. And you no longer know who you were.”

The German writer Thomas Melle has been living with bipolar disorder for many years. He is by no means alone amongst the world’s creative minds. Robert Schumann, Vincent van Gogh, Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway are also believed to have been bipolar, even though this diagnosis did not exist during their lifetimes. Melle recounts his experience of living with the illness, his personal dramas and his gradual recovery with unflinching honesty and brilliant prose – thereby offering an extraordinary insight into what goes on inside the mind of someone with the condition. This gripping and at times highly comical and absurd chronicle of a torn life is a radically autobiographical work of the highest literary calibre. It was shortlisted for the 2016 German Book Prize and has been acclaimed by the press and readers alike.

Johann Jürgens was a permanent member of the ensemble at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin from 2008 to 2013 and worked with directors including Jan Bosse, Sebastian Baumgarten, Nora Schlocker and Barbara Weber. From 2013 to 2016, he moved to the Staatstheater Stuttgart, where he appeared in productions by David Bösch, Frank Castorf, Armin Petras and René Pollesch. From 2017 to 2021, he worked as a freelancer and made guest appearances at venues including the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, and the Schauspielhäuser in Düsseldorf and Zurich. As well as theatre, he has appeared in several television and cinema productions, including the ARD and Sky series ‘Babylon Berlin’. Most recently, from 2021 to 2024, he was a permanent member of the ensemble at the Staatstheater Kassel. As well as acting, Johann Jürgens is also a musician, singer and songwriter. He lives in Switzerland and Germany.

“Johann Jürgens shifts impressively between different states of being. Phew…” P.S.-Zeitung

CONTENT NOTE: The production deals with sensitive topics such as mental health crises, including depressive, manic and suicidal episodes.

A guest performance by the Kurtheater Baden.