About the work
“Die Rechnung” is the German-language version of “L’Addition”, a piece for two performers by the British writer and director Tim Etchells, artistic director of the performance company Forced Entertainment. Etchells wrote the text together with the performer duo Bertrand Lesca and Nasi Voutsas, who devised the show with him and performed it themselves. It premiered in July 2023 at the Festival d’Avignon, in a French translation by Aurélie Cotillard and as a touring production that visited towns and villages around Avignon. It was first performed in German on 19 May 2024 at the Wiener Festwochen, and Forced Entertainment also produced an English-language version in 2024.
Plot
The piece is built on a single everyday situation: at a laid restaurant table a customer orders a glass of wine, and a waiter serves it. The scene starts again and again from the beginning, sometimes with non-stop chatter, sometimes without a word, and gets more and more out of hand: the wine is topped up until the glass overflows, and the two swap roles. With each round the relationship between the one serving and the one being served tips further, until it is impossible to tell who is in control – and in the end the question remains of who settles the bill.
Cultural significance
“L’Addition” combines slapstick and clowning with a close look at hierarchies and relationships of service; a laid table, a chair, wine and a glass are all the set it needs, so it can also be performed in places without a theatre stage. French critics praised the premiere as a burlesque yet thought-provoking piece, while nachtkritik.de found the German-language version charming but too long for its idea.