Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
ver, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
ver, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
Vernon Subutex 1, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
ver, Photo: © Thomas Aurin, 2020 
 

Vernon Subutex 1

by Virginie Despentes
In a version by Florian Borchmeyer, Bettina Ehrlich and Thomas Ostermeier
Translated from French by Claudia Steinitz
Director: Thomas Ostermeier

Stage A

03/23/2024, 17.00–21.15
With German and English surtitles

Things are going remarkably badly for Vernon Subutex. Formerly the owner of a record store renowned throughout Paris, blessed with customers ranging from the rock scene to the hip bourgeoisie, and idolised by female groupies, in times of digital file-sharing and streaming services, Vernon first loses his shop and then, after a failed attempt at online-retail, his entire job. Even worse: his raison d’être. As a dinosaur of the analogue age, for years he buries himself with six packs and TV series in his flat which he can only afford with the help of his former band mate — the now legendary singer Alex Bleach. When the latter dies a premature pop-star death, Vernon’s final financial foothold slips away. He ends up on the street and begins a couch-surfing odyssey with old friends and lovers and, hence, a journey to the depths of an utterly insecure society that is characterised by division, inequality and social neglect — until, ultimately, he truly becomes down-and-out in Paris. Whether it be a hapless screenwriter, a former punk turned right-wing bigot, a liberal Muslim with a fundamentalist daughter, a feminist ex-porn star, a super-snoop specialising in cyber-bullying, a fascist group of thugs or housing estate machos — in startling changes of perspective, the French writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentes creates a dazzling cast of characters spanning several generations, social classes, gender identities and political orientations. The first part of her trilogy about Vernon Subutex is simultaneously a tour de force through the topics of our age and a fascinating social panorama. After »Returning to Reims« and »History of Violence«, Thomas Ostermeier is dedicating himself once more to the contrasts of an increasingly polarised and brutalised present in the form of an adaptation of a contemporary French prose text.

Director: Thomas Ostermeier
Set and Costume Design: Nina Wetzel
Video: Sébastien Dupouey
Composition: Nils Ostendorf
Dramaturgy: Bettina Ehrlich
Lighting Design: Erich Schneider
Vernon Subutex: Joachim Meyerhoff
Emilie / Audrey / Gaëlle: Julia Schubert
Xavier Fardin: Holger Bülow
Sylvie / Die Hyäne: Stephanie Eidt
Laurent Dopalet: Axel Wandtke
Pamela Kant: Ruth Rosenfeld
Daniel: Henri Maximilian Jakobs
Kiko: Bastian Reiber
Marcia: Mano Thiravong
Aïcha / Anaïs: Hêvîn Tekin
Patrice: Thomas Bading
Alexandre Bleach im Video: Blade AliMBaye
Musicians: Henri Maximilian Jakobs, Ruth Rosenfeld, Taylor Savvy, Thomas Witte
Duration: ca. 255 minutes(with intermission)

Premiered on 4 June 2021

Tour Dates

Hamburg (February 2022)
Zagreb (April 2022)
Paris (June 2022)

Co-production with Croatian National Theatre Zagreb.