ALASKA KID | MEESE, STANGENBERG, WUTTKE ON ICE

Adapted from Jack London

In the beginning he was Christopher Bellew. By the time he was at college he had become Chris Bellew. Later, in the Bohemian crowd of San Francisco, he was called Kit Bellew. And in the end he was known by no other name than Smoke Bellew. And this history of the evolution of his name is the history of his evolution. Nor would it have happened had he not had a fond mother and an iron uncle, and had he not received a letter from Gillet Bellamy…

This is how Smoke Bellew (German: Alaska Kid) begins, a collection of stories written in 1912 for a San Francisco newspaper by the author Jack London. They are about the adventures of newspaper reporter Christopher Bellew during the great Klondike Gold Rush around 1896, when hundreds of thousands of gold seekers were driven north to Dawson City during a time of severe economic crisis. Some struck it rich, many did not. 570 tons of gold flooded the market, the borders between Canada and Alaska got redrawn, serious inflation kicked in, and the end of the gold rush led to a major liquidity crisis. In our age of hegemonic powers, it is vital to go gold digging ourselves, to find the last reserves, and seize what can be seized. Let us plunge into a series of unforeseeable events and follow the call of art!

Smoke Bellew/Alaska Kid is all about dreams! We are in a constant state of reverie. What must happen happens, as if in a dream! So join our three ‘art proles’, who will devote themselves wholly and lovingly to all that is gold – that is, to absolute love. We will dance gold into being by shaking off the demons! Gold runs through our veins; our bodies and souls are made of gold; everything about us is gold, gold nuggets in our ears with gold shares dripping off of us. We are invoking gold’s name and will only be happy with gold. And we will all turn to gold dust in the end! Our arch adrenaline is called G.O.L.D.

And this is how it all ends:

Alaska Kid smiled…

Coproduction with Schauspiel Köln