Jean-Philippe Kindler has a new solo program, something has to be said about it: "Klassentreffen" (Class Reunion) is based on the stage genre of unrestrained rabble-rousing: it gets loud, it gets coarse, it gets irreconcilable. In the history of German media, there has probably never before been a satirist who has been called a "rabble-rouser" by both the BILD newspaper and some left-wingers. Fortunately, both sides are right, because Jean-Philippe Kindler wants one thing above all: to divide. The satire by the German cabaret prizewinner not only aims to highlight social rifts, but to widen them even further so that they can no longer be overlooked.
"Klassentreffen" is a homage to irreconcilability: whether in the WDR broadcasting council or in the rocked-out student flat share - Kindler's content makes the shreds fly so that the Karl Marx face tattoo just slips off your temple. And yet Kindler only wants one thing: to find common ground in division. There is a rumor going around in capitalism that there is no longer such a thing as social classes: after all, if even large corporations advertise diversity, then everyone has the same chance - at least of being exploited.
And yet it still exists, the good old class. The champagne Marxists. The antifascists. The pensioners without a pension. The tender radicals, the trainees and the students. Come to the class reunion for a little detention against the status quo.
"The satirist Kindler manages to touch his audience with his own thoughts without resorting to clichés. [...] Kindler is a fighter for justice who loves words and language. And they love him back." (Jury Prix Pantheon, 2020) "Jean-Phillipe Kindler's art deals with poverty and precarity with a sensitive and uncynical wit that exposes social conditions rather than those affected, as is so often the case." (Katja Kipping, die Linke) "[...] He is more like Volker Pispers than a gentle comedian, only funnier. Cabaret artists of this caliber have become rare, Kindler gives hope." (Thomas Zimmer, Badische Neueste Nachrichten).