Faust

It is serendipitous: A directorship which has shaped theatre history like no other since 1989 sets its final chords with a work of considerable theatrical force. Frank Castorf`s reading of Goethe’s “Faust” shows total freedom of interpretation and ample additions of external text. For him, it is not the drama of the German thinker, but rather the drama of the European bourgeoisie, who had set out in 1789 to free all peoples from feudal bondage. And what actually came about was the bondage of capitalist economisation. This journey takes us from the “creation of man”-scenarios of “Faust II”, via France in the Second Empire, to the colonial reality of the Algerian war. We follow Faust not so much as a character, but rather as a complex of problems: Global Player Faust. For his expedition campaigns, Castorf has assembled a throng of exceptional actors who hold this eruptive stage event together at its core: Marc Hosemann, Sophie Rois, Alexander Scheer, Lilith Stangenberg, Martin Wuttke. And Valery Tscheplanowa, who was selected as “Female actor of the year” for this performance.

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Scenes from Goethe’s underground. Also an excerpt from Émile Zola: NANA. Complete edition. Translated and with an epilogue by Erich Marx, Sammlung Dieterich, volume 202, © Aufbau Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin 1957, 2008. And: Paul Celan. Todesfuge. © Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt (publishing group Random House GmbH).