Auf See ('Afloat')
by Guy de Maupassant
In the summer of 1887, Guy de Maupassant undertook a ten-day cruise from Antibes to Saint-Tropez on a yacht that inspired him to produce his maybe most personal and frank work. He let his thoughts drift along with the wind, which resulted in a timeless, impactful diary of musings on wit, society, war and love.
With nothing to interrupt his trains of thought, other than his two crew members arguing on and off about the direction of the wind, de Maupassant ventures on passionate excursions into the realm of the mind, ponders the superficiality of the moneyed world and its pretentious relationship with art, happiness and loneliness, and the freedom afloat. When the capriciousness of the wind and waves forces him to go on shore from time to time, he paints a picture of the society along the coast, mostly with derision, and shares his existential views on the conditions of the imperfect human existence.
Richy Müller's reading from this literary masterpiece is accompanied by the pianist Reinmar Henschke.
Richy Müller has been one of the detectives in the Stuttgart-based episodes of the long-running crime series Tatort on German TV since 2007. He shot to instant fame in Marianne Lüdcke's three-part television series Die große Flatter ('The Big Getaway'), and has subsequently appeared in countless TV productions, including Christian Petzold's The State I Am In and Chris Kraus' period drama The Poll Diaries, as well as in the movie Four Minutes. Richy Müller has played leading roles in Gregor Pausewang's film adaptations of two novels, The Cloud and Gaming Instinct.
Reinmar Henschke is a pianist and composer; he studied organ at the University of Music and Theatre 'Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy' Leipzig and has since been busy with various solo and collaborative jazz projects, as well as performing on stage, which he regularly shares with artists such as Ulla Meinecke, Till Brönner, Jocelyn B. Smith, Barbara Kellerbauer and Jannis Zotos & Band. He also composes film and TV scores.
