The 10 most remarkable productions
By Sam Max
Translated by Wilke Weermann
Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden
Premiere: 29.9.2024
Double Serpent © Deutsches SchauSpielHaus Hamburg
Can injuries be healed by voluntarily repeating them? In “Double Serpent”, Ersan Mondtag interweaves sexuality and trauma into a surreal thriller of powerful imagery, where violence is never shown and is still omnipresent.
Bonds, cuts and blows are part of Connor’s and Felix’ love life. When an ex-partner accuses Felix of abuse, Connor is taken back to his childhood. Memories of traumatic experiences are awakened: a young Connor in a damp cellar, isolated, eavesdropping on the illegal machinations of his organ-dealing stepfather. A harrowing thriller unfolds in a greenish, dimly lit house of spirits. Almost incorporeally, the actors move through the horror-esque world of the production, with various time-levels flowing into each other. Through language, sound, lighting and impressive images, Ersan Mondtag and his team create a suspense-filled atmosphere where the limits between reality and fantasy, consent and coercion become blurred.
This play fits Ersan Mondtag’s nightmarish theatre language like a glove. In the text by dramatist Sam Max from New York, meaning is assembled like a puzzle where all the pieces find their places only at the end. Mondtag’s staging is peopled by stylised, artificial characters whose shells break open bit by bit. Biographical facts come to light, levels of time and reality become more relatable. The balance of power, on the other hand, appears more and more obscure. What are we watching in Alexander Naumann’s fantasy-art noveau set? Is it a consensual gay BDSM-relationship or sexual abuse? Young Connor is at the centre of fascinating loops of light, sound and slow motion, where violence is ever present – even though it is never displayed, not even in Luis August Krawen’s computer-animated videos. This is no show for voyeurs: Instead, this artistic synthesis is disturbing in a unique, almost ceremonial manner, and it develops a hypnotic slipstream.
Tojuror Sabine Leucht’s video statement on “Double Serpent” (in German)
ProgrammeBooklet (pdf, 2.3 MB)
Ersan Mondtag – Director
Alexander Naumann – Stage Design
Teresa Vergho – Costume Design
Benedikt Brachtel – Music
Rainer Casper / Steffen Hilbricht – Lighting Design
Luis August Krawen – Video
Till Briegleb – Dramaturgy
Timur Frey – Connor
Lasse Boje Haye Weber – Felix
Felix Strüven – Fake Dad
Jonas Grundner-Culemann – Eric 1 / Eric 2
Extras Hessisches Staatstheater
Performing rights: Suhrkamp Verlag AG Berlin