About the work
"Ein paar Leute suchen das Glück und lachen sich tot" ("A Few People Look for Happiness and Laugh Themselves to Death") is Sibylle Berg's debut novel, published in 1997, which brought her wider recognition. Stephan Bruckmeier adapted the material for the stage; this version premiered on 14 July 1999 at Theater Rampe in Stuttgart, directed by Eva Hosemann.
Plot
Across 88 short, collage-like chapters, the novel shifts between the perspectives of eight main characters from three generations – Ruth, Karl, Helge, Vera, Pit, Bettina, Tom and Nora, plus several other men. They search for happiness and closeness through shifting relationships and chance encounters, but almost all fail because of loneliness, self-absorption and mutual misunderstanding; by the end, all but Vera have died in various grotesque ways.
Cultural significance
With this debut, Berg established herself as an unsparing, pointed observer of 1990s fun-culture and relationship failure; the fragmented narrative structure and laconic, dark humour became hallmarks of her later work. Bruckmeier's stage adaptation is still performed at municipal and amateur theatres today.