Dead At Last, At Last No More Air

Foreword by Diana Damian Martin Werner Schwabs final work, also known as a theatre-extinction comedy, is a brutal, irreverent and bizarrely comical piece about what happens when an emerging stage production is sabotaged by outsiders. Following a dispute with the cast, the director replaces all the actors with pensioners from a nearby home for the elderly. At first compliant and polite, the forgotten and dispossessed gradually start to question the directors authority, leading to a coup dtat where the theatres cleaning lady is selected as the groups leader. Not everybody survives the new order. Werner Schwab was only thirty-five years old when he was found dead in his room following a New Years Eve drinking spree in 1994. He was, at the time, the undisputed star of German speaking theatre who effortlessly rose to fame for his unique talent with language and his darkly humorous, confrontational narratives. In only four years, he completed fifteen plays with Dead at Last, At Last No More Air (Endlich tot, endlich keine luftmehr) being his last.