First choice

The senior theater group die methusalems is returning to Theater Freiburg in autumn 2024! Together with director Sahar Amini-Jörger and Frank Albrecht, they are adapting the "future novel" ERSTE WAHL by Freiburg author Kathrin Pläcking. It describes a society in the near future in which the "Progress" party (elected with an absolute majority) fulfills its election promises to solve society's "ageing problem" and enacts new pension legislation: Anyone who renounces all further state aid and pension at the age of 75 is entitled to a one-off financial settlement of 150,000 euros. In addition, suicide is not only legalized, but actively supported through the free provision of pain-free medication. Susanne Hellbrich is not aware of any of this. She is the eldest of five siblings, is 75 years old and suffers from dementia. She loves her slippers, confuses the living with the dead and uses her walking stick to balance through her photo albums. Meanwhile, her siblings Franziska and Markus struggle with the care situation and Ruth with her cancer, while her brother Jens cheats her out of her severance pay ... When Susanne's geriatric nurse Laura meets Jens on a park bench, unaware that he is Susanne's brother, the family story takes an unexpected turn. In their project, the methusalems tackle the pressing, difficult-to-answer issue of the exclusion of older people, some of whom have dementia, in our society. And the book "First Choice" lives up to its title, because it neither stirs up fear of an avalanche of old age nor accuses. On the contrary: it encourages!