Premiere in the National Theater: Menasses The expansion is exciting!

Premiere in the National Theater: Menasses The expansion is exciting!

On May 23, 2025, the premiere of the play “The Expansion”, which is based on the novel of the same name by Robert Menasse, took place at the National Theater Mannheim. The piece, directed by director Anna-Elisabeth Frick, addresses key issues in EU politics and addresses the challenge of enlarging the European Union, particularly in relation to Albania.

“The Enlargement” was already awarded the European Book Prize when it was published in 2023. Menasse, who is also known for his earlier novel “The Capital,” combines current political issues with literary fiction in this new work. In the story, a cruise ship called the SS Skanderbeg is constructed to convince EU decision-makers of the need to admit Albania into the union. The name of the ship refers to the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg and suggests a connection to national romantic symbolism.

Politics and human weaknesses

The production addresses politics as a field characterized by human weaknesses. Menasse expresses that the relevance of class interests and ideologies is often neglected in this context. The Albanian Prime Minister “ZK” is portrayed as a subtle allusion to the current head of government Edi Rama. Frick's production is intended to reintroduce politically complex approaches into the discourse and present the text in a deconstructed manner.

Martha-Marie Pinsker's abstract stage uses innovative video titles to visualize changes in location and time. The piece lasts 1 hour and 40 minutes without an intermission and features a cast that includes Maria Helena Bretschneider, Paul Simon, Rocco Louis Brück, Maria Munkert, Sandro Šutalo and Matthias Breitenbach.

A look at the EU and national challenges

Menasse, who lived in Brussels for several months and spent a long time in Albania, devotes himself to the contradictions within Europe in “Enlargement”. He criticizes the fact that many politicians in the EU states often adopt an EU-critical stance, while accession candidates such as Albania take a pro-EU position. This highlights the challenges associated with EU enlargement, particularly with regard to necessary judicial reforms.

Menasse describes the EU as a great idea but poorly managed. With his reading tour to introduce “Enlargement”, which will take you through two dozen German cities until the end of the year, he would like to create awareness of the different perspectives in Europe and shed more light on national and European narratives. The author describes his work as a mixture of tragedy, satire, love stories and historical lessons, combining both fact and fiction and apologizing for past historical inaccuracies.

The premiere in Mannheim is part of a larger cultural dialogue about the future of Europe, in which Menasse formulates his vision of a European republic. He sees opportunities for change in the current crises and is consistently pursuing his European dream.

For more information about this production and Robert Menasse's work, you can read the articles from nachtkritik.de and sueddeutsche.de visit.