About the work
Botho Strauß's sequence of scenes „Big and Little" („Groß und klein") was premiered at the Berlin Schaubühne in 1978, with Edith Clever in the leading role. In loosely strung images the play paints the portrait of a lonely woman in vain search of closeness in West German affluent society. It is regarded as a key work on isolation and the loss of meaning.
Plot
Lotte, a sensitive, wide-awake woman in her late thirties, wanders through a series of stations in her life and the society around her. Abandoned by her husband, she seeks connection everywhere: with former acquaintances, with strangers in flats and waiting rooms, in a religious longing that comes to nothing. But everywhere she meets rejection, indifference or incomprehension; her friendliness and her need to communicate strike others as disturbing. In a succession of encounters — now grotesque, now tender, now wounding — it becomes clear how little room society has for someone like her. At the end Lotte remains alone, in a waiting room, called by no doctor — an image of radical isolation.
Cultural significance
„Big and Little" is regarded as one of the most significant German-language plays of the late 1970s and a trenchant diagnosis of loneliness in the modern society of abundance. The role of Lotte became a great challenge for actresses; internationally, Cate Blanchett among others has played her. The play belongs to the standing repertoire of German-language stages.