Theatre | The 10 Selected Productions
Wallenstein
Eine dokumentarische Inszenierung
A documentary production by Helgard Haug and Daniel Wetzel / Rimini Protokoll
Nationaltheater Mannheim
Premiere 5 June 2005
Wallenstein © Karola Prutek
Theatre and reality overlap in “Wallenstein” to an extent which is extraordinary. One instance of this is the presence on stage of the former CDU candidate for Mayor of Mannheim, Dr. Sven-Joachim Otto. He recounts truthfully how he was built up as a populist candidate only for his own party to refuse to vote for him. While every word of what he says is true, Otto is also unmistakably acting. The actors create and deconstruct themselves simultaneously. “Wallenstein” is the first time Rimini-Protokoll have worked with a classic text. The production is a triumph of casting and “framing”, a collage of astonishing contemporary fragments and an intelligent commentary on Schiller’s “Wallenstein”.
Cast
Directed by – Helgard Haug, Daniel Wetzel
Stage and Costume Design – Judith Kehrle
Lighting Design – Sofie Thyssen
Dramaturgy – Imanuel Schipper
With
Dave Blalock – Vietnam veteran, anti war activist
Wolfgang Brendel – former head waiter in the hotel “Elephant”
Friedemann Gaßner – electric master and Schiller fan
Ralf Kirsten – deputy head of a police authority in Thuringia
Robert Helfert – town councillor retd., former air force assistant
Rita Mischereit – runs a dating agency
Dr. Sven-Joachim Otto – lawyer, town councillor in Mannheim
Esther Potter – approved astrologist (DAV)
Hagen Reich – former officer cadet of the Federal Armed Forces
Darnell Stephen Summers – Vietnam veteran, musician
On Video
Carsten Südmersen – chairman of the parliamentary party CDU Mannheim
Prof. Martin Weber – chair for economics and public finance (University of Mannheim)
A production of the Nationaltheater Mannheim in co-production with the Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar for the 13th International Schillertage