Pollesch and Hinrichs turn opening night The Choice into a theatrical philosophical happening #The International Choice

For the opening night of The International Choice, the Rotterdam Schouwburg was briefly transformed into Berlin's Volksbühne. The same black plastic rags on the walls, the same ugly yellow front curtain and - most strikingly - the seats in the auditorium have been replaced by white beanbags. Those beanbags, by the way, are widely despised and mocked in Berlin. After all, their main purpose is to conceal the fact that the Oostberlin Volksbühne no longer attracts nearly as many visitors as in the heyday of the revolutionary theatre stronghold in the 1990s.

Anyway, at the show Ich schau dir in die Augen, gesellschaftlicher Verblendungs zusammenhang! then again, they fit perfectly. For the Netherlands, it is not the first introduction to the work of German playwright René Pollesch, but he has not yet featured so prominently here. Last year, he was to be seen at The International Choice with the show Der perfekte Tag (like Ich schau dir in die Augen... a solo by stage actor Fabian Hinrichs) but Hinrichs then broke his leg and the performance was cancelled.

Pollesch is a typical exponent of the 'applied theatre science' course in Giessen, where theatre is viewed and practised from a theoretical angle. It sometimes produces gort-dry, highly intellectual exercises, with theatre texts based on sociological writings mixed with eighteenth-century boulevard comedies, but sometimes also sparklingly sharp and idea-rich theatre-over-theatre. Ich schau dir in die Augen... is an eminent example of the latter.

What are we looking at when we watch someone on stage? A body? A representation? Or an idea? That is the central problem of this performance. Since 1971, when at a conference in Bretton Woods the gold standard was abandoned and money no longer represents anything real, even in theatre - according to Pollesch - any connection between what is on show and something real is mere fantasy, a story. Even the actor's body does not escape this; a spectator can never feel what an actor feels and is therefore always looking at an idea.

It is to the credit of the peerless Fabian Hinrichs that this material does not remain dry fare, but becomes a scintillating happening. He presents it with irrepressible energy as a playful lecture - constantly interrupted by old-school hip-hop, rapping through the audience, hanging from a lamp contraption, while joking about the surtitles, playing half-songs on piano, guitar and drums and getting the audience to clap along in time. But the best part is that he simultaneously problematises himself as an actor on stage and turns that into a sublime act.

Ich schau dir in die Augen... is theatrical research of a level that is not only unknown but also unthinkable in the Netherlands. For that, theoretical thinking is not general enough here after all, which is why our theatre is still utterly trapped in the "miserable cosiness of the theatre hall". But it is nevertheless a fabulous performance that immediately frames everything that will follow at the festival, like a new pair of glasses with which you can suddenly see everything more sharply. And that may make it the ideal opening performance for The International Choice.

Ich schau dir in die Augen, gesellschaftlicher Verblendungszusammenhang! From the Volksbühne am Rosa Luxemburgplatz Berlin.
Seen: 16/9/11. Still to be seen on 17/9.