Have you really never heard of Miranda July? Maren Eggert doesn’t ring a bell? If that’s the case, you must urgently get a ticket to Der erste fiese Typ (The First Bad Man) at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. Based on the novel by American author and artist Miranda July, the play features none other than Maren Eggert (in my opinion, one of the most exciting actresses in the German film and theatre landscape). The evening, at the Deutsches Theater, unfolds as an absurdly funny and wonderfully offbeat monologue about relationships. Maren Eggert plays Cheryl, a woman in her early forties who believes she has perfectly organized her life through self-invented rules, maximum self-control, and a very active imagination. That is, until she ends up trapped by her own system. Director Sarah Kurze stages the material as a monologue, opening up Cheryl’s inner world, somewhere between comedy and melancholy. Behind the protagonist’s seemingly well-ordered surface lies emotional emptiness and a deep uncertainty about how closeness between people actually comes into being. How do we begin to let others in? Her own logic and order are everything to her. No unnecessary routes through the house, meals eaten straight from the pan, and books read directly in front of the shelf. Yet her perfectly organized life is thrown thoroughly off balance when the much younger, unapologetically unconventional Clee moves in — an encounter that challenges Cheryl’s entire way of life. Between self-defense videos, daydreams, and emotional chaos, Cheryl has to ask herself whether she may have completely misread the world – and herself. For 105 minutes, Maren Eggert moves between earnestness and laconic irony. It is gloriously quirky, at times absurd to watch, and deeply intelligent. A true acting tour de force that carries the entire evening. Chapeau! The result is a clever and funny, surprisingly tender night at the theatre about self-protection, self-determination, projections, and the moment when fantasy collides with reality.
Text: Milena Kalojanov / Photos: Jasmin Schuller
Deutsches Theater, Schumannstr.13a, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map
Der erste fiese Typ (The First Bad Man). Find tickets for April 2026 online.
@deutschestheater
