Echtzeitalter
based on the novel by Tonio Schachinger

The Marianum - a typical elite grammar school with boys in green polo shirts, girls in white jeans and a bourgeois façade. The rather introverted Till doesn't have an easy time there with his class teacher, Mr. Dolinar. The sadistic German teacher vehemently defends the literary canon as the heart of education by not letting his pupils read anything that is not available as a Reclam book. To escape the repressive structures of the school, Till takes refuge in the computer game »Age of Empires 2«. Between everyday school life, being a teenager and his first big love, Till spends his nights up at night and secretly works his way up to become one of the world's best gamers.

»Echtzeitalter« won the German Book Prize in 2023. Written in the masterful language of a classic Bildungsroman, Viennese author Tonio Schachinger uses subtle humor and palpable empathy to tell the story of a youth caught between the constraints of our traditional education system and the perceived freedom of gaming - a conflict between generations, between antiquated authorities and youthful curiosity, between the analogue and digital worlds.

The artists' collective F. Wiesel, who are exploring the theatrical forms of digitality as artists in residence at the Konsole, are teaming up with director Timon Jansen to explore Schachinger's successful novel. In a cross-media production ranging from puppetry to computer games, they follow the characters on their search for themselves and the life they want to live.