Sasha Waltz and Guests Allee der Kosmonauten APA Drama Theatre February 14 Last show tonight What do East Berliners do for fun? Beat each other up, make out on the sofa, take cheap drugs and occasionally do the vacuum cleaning.
This choreographed sign of the times in East Germany from West German Sasha Waltz is a depressing image of modern life, albeit dressed in the sadrags of visual comedy.
As soon as the piece opens - a row of lights shining directly at the audience with a young man perched on a pole sniffing into a plastic bag and later becoming a computer games character - it is clear that Waltz is going to be unsparing in her story-telling of the family in a tiny flat.
Dressed in shellsuits and white practical underwear, a man and a woman perform a pas des deux of domestic violence - hit, fall, turn, tear, rip, hit, fall.
It was shockingly beautiful the first few times, though after all six characters had beaten and been beaten several times I felt I had enough of stylised violence.
There were too few tender moments, though a post-fight solo on accordion from a man standing on his head and supported by the man whom he had beaten up was startlingly gentle.