,,Seite Eins – Theaterstück für einen Mann und ein Smartphone“ von Johannes Kram

Marco is a journalist. A tabloid journalist by conviction. Gossip is everywhere, it has made it from the hairdressing salon to the "serious" press. The voyeuristic voices accompany and follow people through affairs and crises, at the end of which they either gain rapid popularity or perish. Marco loves this power and reveres his profession as an art. "Carrot and stick" is his maxim. On the constant hunt for a story that sells well, he meets Lea. She has just released her first CD and is still a real newcomer to the business. With his unerring instinct, Marco immediately senses the perfect prey. He offers Lea the prospect of a cover story and her big breakthrough. Although Lea is suspicious of tabloid media, she lets herself be lulled by the hypocritical promises of the unscrupulous journalist. He breaks the story, albeit in a slightly different way than discussed. In his version, made up of half-truths, Lea is transformed from a serious artist into a celebrity who has snagged the heir to a business dynasty as image polish. It hits the spot, albeit a little differently than expected for Marco. For a brief moment, his back is against the wall. But then he manages to drive Lea into a corner with a little perfidious blackmail. He makes her expose herself again and finally turns her into fair game in a flurry of flashbulbs.

Johannes Kram's "Page One" is a play that is as entertaining as it is bitterly wicked, exposing the sometimes irresponsible machinery of modern mass media. An offer to look behind the scenes and reflect on one's own attitude towards the media. Where does investigative journalism end and where does inhumane, disrespectful reporting begin? And what role does our own desire for voyeurism play in this?