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DER UNTERGANG DER TITANIC Volkstheater - Wien Sat 12.Dec 2026 19:30 replace me !April 14, 1912. At 11:40 p.m., an iceberg tears open the hull of the RMS Titanic. The hours-long sinking of this luxury liner—deemed unsinkable—stands as the most famous disaster in the history of transatlantic travel. It has inspired countless films, books, exhibitions, performances, and imaginative works. Among the most compelling is a narrative poem by the German writer Hans Magnus Enzensberger, which he calls "a comedy"—an allusion to Dante. It recounts the absurdities that unfolded as the ship went down: the scenes in the lifeboats, the actions of the crew, the dead, the survivors, and the hierarchies on board. The writing shifts between lyrical density, laconic brevity, and political commentary. It touches on everything from salon paintings and the first-class dinner menu to the oppressive crampedness of the lower decks. It is interspersed with timestamps, temperatures, and sounds—including the music of the band, who reportedly played on tirelessly until the very end.Yet the work addresses far more than just this specific sinking. Written in 1977—against the backdrop of the nuclear arms race, the energy crisis, and early warnings about man-made climate change—Enzensberger’s rarely performed text transforms the Titanic into a metaphor for a civilization that clings to an unwavering belief in progress, the promises of technology, and the deceptive security of its comfort zones, even as catastrophe has already become reality. Half a century later, his polyphonic panorama is more relevant than ever. It opens up a timeless space for reflection, raising questions about responsibility, perception, and collective decision-making—as well as the role of art within that process. But as long as our catastrophe remains merely a long-heralded event that no one wants to acknowledge, we—the people aboard the luxury liner—calmly continue with our calisthenics.(Source: volkstheater.at)
