The first production of The Rocky Horror Show to be staged in Germany, was presented by a “Repertory” theatre group in the town of Essen. Due to an extensive advertising campaign by Ulrich Brecht, head of a grocery empire., the show was sold out for 12 weeks. The director was a guest from Cologne, Walter Brockmayer, known for his high camp cult films.
The lead was also an outsider, an import from the USA, Decoven C. Washington, the first black man to play the role of Frank n Furter, and the only member of the show to receive good reviews. The majority of the rest of the cast were made up from the theatre company’s “tribe”.
Instead of the gloomy castle Bockmayer set his lustful Transylvanians in a sterile hospital setting, plenty of exposed buttocks included.
The wooden translation by Horst Königstein, was difficult to understand, and made almost unintelligible by a sound system that was overburdened. Audience members were advised not to wear quality clothing, as the theatre was bombarded with water, rice, and other projectiles.
The criticism, leaves almost nothing unscathed in Bockmayer’s freak show: "The product tastes like solid plastic, guaranteed germ-free," writes the FAZ, " Disco carnival "nagged the NRZ. Only guest star Decoven C. Washington gets good grades. "His bluesy embodiment of Frank-N-Furter makes up for a lot," praises the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. The rest of the actors "seem like puppets, mechanically reproducing their parts on command." Fritz Briesemeister acted as Riff Raff and Jutta Bryde impersonated Magenta. |
