Béla Rothenbühler: "Polifon perverse"

Swiss Literature Prize 2025 and nominated for the Swiss Book Prize 2024

Amazing things happen in a tranquil small town in Switzerland: Sabine and Chantal have hardly been founded when they shake up the cultural scene with their association "Polifon Pervers" and a new vision of "Onderhaltig". Risk-taking and cleverly acting, they rise to national greats as theatre producers and gather an illustrious group around them: from the vain director Lüssiän to the drunken ghostwriter Iiv, the bon vivant and DJ Milan and the opportunistic acting great Schontal to Jule and his hemp farmers, who unexpectedly shine as performance artists. In the course of history, the Entertainment Association subordinates everything to success, and so the first imperfections are soon followed by all kinds of fraud. In his second novel, Béla Rothenbühler convincingly continues the tradition of the picaresque novel - for once with impostors and in Lucerne German. His ironic-satirical thought game about culture, entertainment and money is itself great entertainment art.

"Polifon Pervers" was published in March 2024 by Der gesunde Menschenversand. Together with the actor and rapper Stefan Schönholzer aka Rotchopf, Rothenbühler is now bringing the novel to the stage — as a musical reading in which the text of the novel collides with rap. Rotchopf adds an additional layer to "Polifon Pervers", which consists exclusively of unreleased songs.

Reading: Béla Rothenbühler
Music: Rotchopf
Duration: approx. 70 minutes, without intermission