News

23.01.2025: Ran Chai Bar-zvi stages CALIGULA at Volkstheater München

Posted on by Olesia Vitiuk

CALIGULA
by Albert Camus
Directed by Ran Chai Bar-zvi

Premiere at the Munich Volkstheater on January 23, 2025 at 7:30 p.m.

The golden age is over – the young emperor is in mourning. After the death of his sister and lover Drusilla, he questions the meaning of human existence: “People die and they are not happy”. What follows are cruel years, full of executions and arbitrariness on the part of the power-obsessed ruler.
The shrinking of democratic processes and the worldwide flourishing of autocracies lend the play a new political dimension. At the same time, for Camus, as for Caligula, social artificiality remains the basic motif: the emperor as a total director and yet a seeker of unattainable freedom.
Dates & tickets

6.01.2025: Guest performance MONOPOLY by & with Calle Fuhr at Berliner Ensemble

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MONOPOLY – Eine Besteigung des deutschen Schuldenberges
by and with Calle Fuhr

Guest performance on January 6, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. at the Berliner Ensemble.
Followed by an audience discussion with Carl Mühlbach (economist).

The recession is in full swing, there is a lack of money in the next federal budget, and Calle Fuhr wants to make his contribution to the economic stabilization of the FRG. If every citizen donates something to the state, Fuhr thinks, the debt hole can close quickly!
But it’s not that simple.
Lecture performance by and with Calle Fuhr.

A co-production of Theater Magdeburg and the Festival OSTEN

14.12.2024: Premiere ELLEN BABIĆ by Marius von Mayenburg at Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf

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ELLEN BABIĆ
by Marius von Mayenburg
Director: Anton Schreiber

When Astrid invites her boss Wolfram Balderkamp to an informal work meeting to her place, her partner Klara is outraged. Balderkamp teaches at the school where Klara was Astrid’s student ten years ago. What happens when he remembers her? Besides, she can’t forgive his ‘learning methods’. What does Astrid want from him?
Like a spider, Wolfram roams the apartment, weaving a dangerous web with his questioning: Where did the two meet? And when exactly? Whether this one bath towel was gifted to Astrid by students of the current year? And what exactly had happened with that one girl on the class trip?

13.12.2024: Premiere PLANET B by Yael Ronen & Itai Reicher at Theater Heidelberg

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PLANET B
by Yael Ronen & Itai Reicher

Premiere on December 13, 2024 at Theater and Orchester Heidelnberg
Director: Cilli Drexel

In the not-so-distant future, climate change has continued unabated, many species are already extinct, vast areas are barely habitable… A race begins to see who deserves to survive. Welcome to the alien entertainment reality show in which humans compete with chickens, pandas, ants, crocodiles and foxes to recolonize the earth as the only surviving species.
Dates & tickets

11.12.2024: Kurt-Hübner Directing Prize for Ran Chai Bar-zvi

Posted on by Olesia Vitiuk

Ran Chai Bar-zvi receives the Kurt Hübner Directing Prize for his production of “Blutbuch”, based on the novel by Kim de l’Horizon, at the Staatstheater Hannover. The decision was made by Almut Wagner, head dramaturge at the Residenztheater and sole juror for the Kurt Hübner Directing Prize. “Ran Chai Bar-zvi always handles even large, existential material with lightness and an incredible instinct for entertainment, […] yet he never runs the risk of trivializing the serious core of the plays,” emphasizes Almut Wagner – as in ‘Blutbuch’, the work for which Ran Chai Bar-zvi receives the prize.

The award has been presented to young directors by the German Academy of Performing Arts since 1991 as part of the Eysoldt Prize ceremony in Bensheim. The prize is endowed with 5000 euros.

BLUTBUCH by Kim de l’Horizon
stage adaptation by Ran Chai Bar-zvi and Michael Letmathe
Premiere was in December 2023 at the Staatstheater Hannover.
Dates & tickets

6.12.2024: Sam Hunter’s THE WHALE – start of the tour with Konzertdirektion Landgraf

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THE WHALE
by Samuel Hunter
Translated & directed by: Stephan Hoffmann

December 6, 2024 – Start of the tour of the Konzertdirektion Landgraf at Theater Nienburg.

Charlie is in his mid-40s and teaches college students English literature. Exclusively online, with the camera switched off. Because Charlie is extremely overweight. He lives in isolation and has long since lost touch with his ex-wife and his 17-year-old daughter Ellie, who is difficult to raise.
Charlie’s interaction with the outside world is limited to home visits from his nurse friend Liz, who finds Charlie’s physical decline difficult to bear, and from the young missionary Elder Thomas.
When the consequences of the illness become life-threatening, Charlie finally makes contact with Ellie.

The film adaptation of “The Whale” (D: Darron Aronofsky) won Brandon Fraser the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role in 2023.

 

Eliza Petkova’s THE WORKER wins Eurimages Co-Production Development Award as Best Project at 28th PÖFF Tallinn

Posted on by Olesia Vitiuk

On November 15-22, 2024, the Black Nights Film Festival took place in Tallinn for the 28th time. The film THE WORKER by Eliza Petkova (in development)  was presented as part of the Baltic Event Co-Production Market and won the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award for Best Project.
Jury’s statement: “With the experience of immigration within Europe as a starting point, this project takes us, and the protagonist, on an unexpected journey. A journey during which the director invites us to rethink the meaning of community and masculinity.”

THE WORKER (dt. “Der Arbeiter”)
Director & screenplay: Eliza Petkova
Producer: Nicolas Kronauer
Produced by: ROW Pictures GmbH, Fourmat Film GmbH
Germany, Bulgaria

After a mine collapse, Georgi – a Roma man and a father in his late twenties – leaves his family in Bulgaria for Germany. He switches jobs, facing exploitation as an undocumented worker. His desire to maintain the image of a luxurious life in rich Germany leads him to construct a facade far from his truth.

29.11.2024: Fritzi Wartenberg directs BIEDERMANN UND DIE BRANDSTIFTER at Berliner Ensemble

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THE ARSONISTS
(dt. BIEDERMANN UND DIE BRANDSTIFTER)
by Max Frisch

Director: Fritzi Wartenberg
at Berliner Ensemble

Biedermann is outraged by the arsonists who have been starting fire everywhere – at least while he is at his local pub or on social media. But when they actually knock on his door, he politely asks them in, even though they make no attempt to hide their intentions. You have to have manners, after all. And you have to be civil: they are just two harmless peddlers. And if they aren’t, it’s better not to make an enemy of them. It would be unwise to afford that, even though you can afford (almost) everything else. Written as a political parable, the play targets a mindset that contributes to the success of destructive forces. How does it happen? Why, what for and by who are the impulses to understand simply pushed aside?

Premiere is on November 29, 2024 at 7:30 p.m.
Further dates & tickets

23.11.2024: Premiere PLANET B by Yael Ronen & Itai Reicher at Theater Magdeburg

Posted on by Olesia Vitiuk

PLANET B
by Yael Ronen & Itai Reicher

Premiere on November 23, 2024 at Theater Magdeburg
Director: Nick Hartnagel

In the not-so-distant future, climate change has continued unabated, many species are already extinct, vast areas are barely habitable… A race begins to see who deserves to survive. Welcome to the alien entertainment reality show in which humans compete with chickens, pandas, ants, crocodiles and foxes to recolonize the earth as the only surviving species.
Dates & tickets