Director who smeared a critic in dog poo is learning that revenge backfires

We’ve all been tempted, haven’t we? In moments of fantastical rage or quiet fury, we dream of getting back at our critics/haters/nemeses (delete as appropriate) in spectacular fashion. But how far would you really go? It would take some chutzpah to match Marco Goecke, the German ballet director now infamous for smearing Wiebke Hüster, a critic, with dog faeces in the interval of a performance of his ballet In the Dutch Mountain.

It is the ultimate in short-term gain and long-term pain. In what I imagine (never having smeared anyone with any faeces of any sort myself) were those blissful moments when Goecke felt his revenge completed, he was probably happy. I doubt he is happy now. The world beyond Germany now knows his name — not as an artist, but as a man with thin skin who has bags of steaming dog poo easily to hand.

As is the case with such actions (he is under investigation by police), he has dragged others into his rather foul (and fouled) spotlight. I think not just of Hüster, who has very understandably complained in the strongest terms of his “physically brutal violence,” but also his equally innocent daschund, Gustav.

For it was poor Gustav who unwittingly played a key role in this modern morality tale, just for emptying his bowels at what proved to an inopportune moment (a bag of his fresh droppings were thus to hand for Goecke). None of us, of course, can choose the circumstances of our stardom. But, though I do not personally know Gustav, I suspect he would not have chosen this route to his 15 minutes of fame. Who would?

Such are the consequences, of course, of the childish act of his master, who, by the way, remains truculent. In a statement to German media, Goecke did apologise to Hüster “for my absolutely unacceptable act”. Unfortunately, he continued, asking the media to “rethink a certain form of destructive and hurtful reporting that damages the whole cultural sector”. Hardly the unqualified apology needed. Clearly, he is still running hot. He has also illustrated one of the many pernicious aspects of revenge. It is never clear, when indulging in this enticing but often ruinous practice, who will really emerge the most stained. Even when you smear your opponent in dog poo.