FORTUNA. Sport Art Politics, 2018

This 20-minute essayistic radio play was commissioned in June 2018 for the Impulse Theatre Festival, as part of the ›Academy of Precariousness #1: Between village square and global market‹.
The premiere took place at SC Fortuna Köln’s Südstadion – during an excursion, the radio play could be listened to via wireless headphones both on and off the pitch.
In 2019, the radio play was broadcast as part of Deutschlandfunk Kultur’s ›Kurzstrecke‹ series.
In 2024, the radio play was presented once again at the Südstadion in Cologne, this time as part of a retrospective programme within the ›AKADEMIE #1: Make Friends – Share Knowledge‹ event.

The radio play (Deutschlandfunk Kultur)

The radio studio commentaries

INVENTUR DEBIL – special radio mix, 2001

Wagner adapted the 50-minute radio play from the performance of the same name, which he had previously staged (since 2000) in various versions at different venues in Germany, Scandinavia and Croatia.

Produced by: DeutschlandRadio Berlin

01 Intro – This is how a radio play could begin / 02 Relax – The real adventures take place inside the head / 03 The Pygmy – Studio guest Andu / 04 Why is the world so beautiful – Empire multifunctional trousers / 05 The blown-up container – Home versus open space / 06 The World Tour 1: Congo – Andu. The Tutsi and the Hutu. The sexual behaviour of bonobos / 07 Half of Life – Weh mir weh mir weh mir / 08 Negative Dialectics – Richie reads Adorno, Ben helps. Utopia would be the subject’s non-identity without sacrifice / 09 The World Tour 2: Japan 1 – Tokyo. Japan in European art. European music in Japan / 10 The World Tour 2: Japan 2 – Hiroshima. There’s a shadow of a man in the moon / 11 Liturgiam Authenticam et Vox Populi – What is authenticity? / 12 Faith, Love, Hope – Triplefuck. Pig breeding. Express yourself / 13 Pampering programmes – The rediscovery of one’s own physicality / 14 Around the World 3: Hawaii – Heinrich Wilhelm Berger. Aloa Oe. Sweating Books / 15 The Millennium Project: Mars – Humanity’s Opportunity and Destiny / 16 Soyuz 1, 1967 – The Last Words of Cosmonaut Komarov / 17 Entropy – The Rhizome. The Voice. The Tinnitus / 18 Crisis as Opportunity – What are three hundred years, after all? / 19 Finale – A Night in Kyoto. Time flies. Tutsis and Hutus play football. Ode to the Future / 20 Credits

Author and director: Otmar Wagner
Contributers: Andreas Deutz, Katrin Moll
Sound: Martin Eichberg
Technical support: Eugenie Kleesattel

Featuring the voices and singing of:
Konstanze Hupe, Audu Saadu, Otmar Wagner, Neil Hennessy, Tobias Kluckert, Martin Seifert, Richie, Ben, Daniel, Florian Feigl, Jörn Burmester, Thomas Lemke, Winfried Tobias, Henrik Pedersen, Marcus Müntefering, Veit Sprenger, Daniel Wetzel, Volker Andresen and many others.

Sequence 03: The Pygmy

Sequence 18: Crisis as Opportunity

Newspaper review – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung