18-year-old Doris wants to be a glamour and no longer work as a secretary to a handsy lawyer in the provinces. She dreams of a life like a film! So she moves to Berlin and experiences the frenzy of the late Golden Twenties. Doris strives for independence and fame, but she is constantly thwarted by limiting conventions. She has affairs, tries for a career on the stage, but nothing works out. The downsides of the metropolis await her just like its promise of fame and glamour. She drifts through this propitious world, carrying not much more than a fur coat that came into her possession in a not quite legal manner. Doris’ fate is that of many young girls of this time; they are attracted by the glitter of the big city but lose themselves in the loneliness and vastness of Berlin, left to their own devices and penniless. But if there is one thing that Doris wants above all, it is to live life to its fullest and stay true to herself. Irmgard Keun captures this feeling by capturing the city itself in a very specific language: “There are omnibuses too – very high – like running observation towers.”
When Irmgard Keun’s novel was first published in 1932, it was an enormous success with the reading public. Only a few months later, the National Socialist German Workers’ Party seized power in Germany. In 1936, Keun went into exile. The National Socialists placed Das kunstseidene Mädchen on the list of banned books because of its allegedly immoral attitude. Today, the novel, whose self-confident protagonist anticipates the female emancipation of later decades, is among the classic works of literary modernism. Director Luise Vogt will portray the contradictions and the glamour of the big city with powerful imagery on the stage of Schauspiel Hannover.