"It took me four years for this role"

The old king approaches his daughter Goneril. He has abdicated, she wants to take away a large part of his knights. The heads touch, a surprising moment of intimacy arises. It almost seems as if they could get along. She seems to long for her father's love. Then Lear turns and casually says, "You are a disease in my flesh."

More psychological brutality is hardly possible. Martin Reinke plays "King Lear", the role that all important actors want to play one day. They must not be too young so that enough experience can be felt on stage. But it's also a huge role that you still have to do physically. At 66, Martin Reinke is a rather young Lear. It is his farewell role from the Cologne drama, he was engaged here for 32 years.

"It took me four years for this role," says Martin Reinke. He has been dealing with the "Lear" for much longer. He played other roles in it, in Cologne and in Vienna. "I never figured out what was actually happening in the play," the actor reflects. “Actually” – that is the important word. "I've read seven versions alongside the original and reversed every word." To understand what's going on inside this person. The king who divides his kingdom among his daughters, excluding the only one who truly loves him. But she doesn't flatter him, but tells him the truth.

The knights play a leading role in the Cologne production by Rafael Sanchez. In the opening scenes, they carry King Lear around on a platform, black figures on an empty, dark stage. "Back then, you could fight wars with 100 knights, that was a big hand," explains Martin Reinke. The play is set in Britain around the time of Charlemagne. Reinke has researched the Celts and once again dealt with the world view of Shakespeare's time. Even though Lear and his daughters diverge, they are one. "You are a disease in my flesh" - this sentence is more than an insult. Lear diagnoses his own illness, perhaps without understanding it at the moment.

So you can discuss the three-hour performance with Martin Reinke. "Texts like those of Shakespeare have survived," he says, "because their background is a vast spiritual cosmos, the plays are applied philosophy." Reinke studied mathematics and philosophy while doing his acting training. “I understand the world by playing. And I can play as soon as I carry an author's cosmos within me."

Such an attitude has become rare in today's theater business. Classics in particular are often overwritten by contemporary authors with new texts. There is a lot of improvisation during rehearsals, sometimes also during performances. "Often the game version is only available two weeks before the first sample reading", reports Martin Reinke. It's horrible for him. "You can't do great texts justice in these theater factories." For more than 45 years, says Martin Reinke, he was "unhappy with the theatre". He played more than 200 roles in Cologne alone. "On the other hand, I'm also a craftsman," he says, "like a tiler who works through his orders." Someone who has learned his craft from scratch. "20 years as an apprentice, 20 years as a journeyman, my progress was slow." This self-assessment is surprising, because Reinke was already a protagonist of the Cologne theater in the 1990s under artistic director Günter Krämer. But it's about your own, very high standards. "I see myself as a composer working on a role," explains Martin Reinke. “The lyrics are the libretto, over them my own, very special music is created. And as an actor, I am my own instrument, my own orchestra.”

That doesn't mean that Reinke presents every word as a treasure. On the contrary, he is also known for mumbling a lot of sentences, almost mumbling them away. To be crystal clear the next moment. "This heart should sooner break into a thousand pieces than I cry." That is a sentence from King Lear, who is standing in the room. The realization follows: "I'm going crazy." Reinke doesn't show a detached character, despite all the complexity, Lear is a suffering person. Not only, but also a symbol of hubris, of overconfidence. And at the same time he is a creature.

There aren't many actors who are permanent members of two large German-speaking ensembles at the same time. Martin Reinke has also been engaged at the Burgtheater in Vienna for decades. For a long time he flew back and forth a hundred times a year. The background is rather banal. A now almost forgotten, hapless director of Cologne - Marc Günther - could not do anything with Reinke. The two decided to let the Cologne contract rest. So he became a festival member in Vienna. There he worked with Karin Beier, who then went to Cologne and reactivated Reinke's contract. At the Burgtheater he simply stayed in parallel.

This put stress on the operations offices, who had to fine-tune their game schedules. For Reinke it also meant being the servant of two masters. A career in film and television was out of the question. However, he can often be heard on the radio, for example in a very concise role as a jazz pianist and undercover investigator in the radio crime scene of the NDR.

Now Reinke could start a career in front of the camera. And maybe Lear is not his final farewell from Cologne. He takes it upon himself, but asks: “What else should you play after Lear?” Still, retirement is out of the question. Because Reinke is still driven to “experience thoughts on stage”. He no longer has to face the demands of everyday life. At the age of 66, Martin Reinke can do theater even more intensively – as an applied philosophy.

Performances on the 6th, 16th and 22nd November and December 28th, Cologne Theater, Depot 1.