A busy yet beautiful September morning, 8.52 a.m. A platform at a railway station, the departure signal is to ring in two minutes. A man reflects on an argument with his wife, a young couple discusses the structure of a romantic comedy, a hungover policeman looks out of the window at a woman running in vain to catch a speeding train...
Each of the travellers carries their own story, chases their own dream, bears their own worries. And each of them plays their particular song in their head. A man watering flowers and Sally, a café waitress humming her favourite song “Bette Davis Eyes” along with the radio, observe the buzzing train from their windows. Then the world stops. At 8.55 a.m., Sally drops her coffee cup. The train explodes right in front of her eyes...
How to describe the indescribable? And how to describe the minutes just before? Roland Schimmelpfennig remains true to his peculiar features in this play: his specific poetics, post-dramatic structure of the text, repeated lines, and variable casting of the characters. The author narrates the story backwards, minute by minute, revealing the thoughts, desires, passions, and dreams of the unsuspecting people whose fates meet and disappear in the minute of explosion. While the author refers to the 2004 terrorist attack in Madrid as his inspiration, actually all his recent dramas touch on a sudden apocalypse that can be reversed, in one way or another, in the wormhole of time. The December shooting at the Prague Faculty of Arts unfortunately makes this play painfully relevant for the Czech audience.
Yet, an undercurrent of a strong hope and the urge not to give up flows through the text. Indeed, the events could have unfolded differently had Sally met the man with the sports bag, and you can always stop time with a bit of luck. Or at least catch a falling cup.