Riesenhaft in Mittelerde™

Mysterious creatures live among plants and talking trees: hobbits, elves, dwarves, magicians, humans and orcs. They all lead peaceful lives. But a powerful ring threatens their tranquillity and must be destroyed. A fellowship is formed and sets out to vanquish evil and leave the good behind. “Riesenhaft in Mittelerde”™ is based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s three-volume novel “The Lord of the Rings”™, which was published in 1954/55. In this large-scale collaborative work, Theater HORA, Das Helmi Puppentheater and Schauspielhaus Zürich create a moving, creative and humorous spectacle that continues Tolkien’s world-famous story while simultaneously submitting it to scrutiny.

Statement of the Jury

A 1250-page novel on stage – and how! The production’s four directors constructed a lovingly equipped walk-in fantasy world in Schauspielhaus Zürich’s Schiffbau-Halle. At first, the audience is allowed to enter and explore; then Frodo’s adventures in Middle Earth unfold with plenty of commotion, music, plastic foam, films and gags. It is a spectacle, a huge merriment, an analysis of a monster film that has thousands of fans in spite of its racist and misogynist undertones. All of this is incorporated, but only in passing. All of the cast perform on an equitable footing, the actors from Schauspielhaus Zürich, the HORA-players, the puppets of Das Helmi, Der Cora Frost. And the co-artistic director accompanies them all on the piano. That’s class, that’s confidence; this is a celebration of the theatre and its wealth of devices, of methods, of faces, of approaches. And even its shortcomings, which are revealed but not exposed. An immersive spectacle where both Tolkien-experts and high culture-nerds will get their money’s worth and vanquish evil together.

Tojuror Valeria Heintges’ video statement in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library (in German)

ProgrammeBooklet (pdf, 4.2 MB)