Nicht wie ihr

This is the story of the star footballer Ivo Trifunović. He says that with football; “the question is not whether you love football, it’s whether you need football.” Ivo needs it – and he’s made it too:  Chelsea, Real Madrid, HSV, Everton, the Austrian national team, the Euros, the World Cup, the Champions League. Right now, it’s not entirely clear what the next step in his career will be: after all, he is 27. In between training and recovery sessions, endless meetings, the psychobabble of the fitness staff, angry managers and greedy officials, Ivo is bored and waits – on 100,000 Euro a week – for the next game. Ivo’s family is from Serbia and he grew up in Vienna. He loves his Bosnian grandma and his mates from the cages where he began playing. And of course, he loves his wife Jessie and the two kids. But while he’s waiting outside a hotel for Jessie in his Bugatti, he sees Mirna. When he was growing up, Mirna was a goddess – and all the boys were in love with her. They arrange to meet up and now Ivo can think of nothing else and starts secretly listening to the playlist that Mirna sent him after their first date.

Embedded in a panorama of real top footballers and clubs and against a backdrop of genuine sporting events, we immerse ourselves in the thoughts of the fictional Ivo Trifunović. He shares his view of the world with us, of football, love and family. And the question of belonging and exclusion.

Nicht wie ihr (“Not Like You”) offers a very particular perspective on the macho business of football in language that is entertaining and direct. This production based on Tonio Schachinger’s eponymous novel will not be presented in the theatre but in the clubhouses of a number of football clubs in Bochum. And not just for football fans!