Die Jungfrau von Orleans

Schiller’s drama was first performed in 1801 and presents Jeanne d’Arc as a farmer’s daughter who sets out on the divine mission of turning the French army’s crumbling fortunes of war against the English. But who is the Johanna behind the myth? In her adaptation, dramaturg Joanna Bednarczyk examines the text from a present-day feminist perspective. Director Ewelina Marciniak and her cast describe Johanna’s path with subtly tuned choreographic, audio-visual and musical devices as a process of emancipation.

Statement of the jury
Who is this Johanna, or Joan, in Friedrich Schiller’s romantic tragedy “Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans)”? A role model for emancipation? A religious fanatic? An idealist’s brainchild? Looking for the woman behind the clichés, director Ewelina Marciniak and dramaturg Joanna Bednarczyk rewrite and comment on Schiller’s text, deconstructing it every way they can think of. Their dreamlike video images above the stage and choreographies that suggest the turmoil of war and pathos as well as a party atmosphere and the flush of emotions are strong theatrical devices. In the end, the virgin emerges as a male construct, as a historical, religious and literary character. Marciniak counters this with the voices of the women and female actors onstage, who exchange their ideas about the dangers and the nature of acting: “Everything changes; the world changes along with the change in you.” Which this show – with all its productive fuzziness and its radical nature – proves impressively.

Tojuror Georg Kasch’s video statement in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library