Text: Frank Witzel
Direction: Armin Petras Direction assistance: Kristin Wehrkamp Zu Höne Direction Trainees: Corinna Pavlova, ... Theatrical adaptation: Armin Petras and Maja Zade Dramaturgy: Maja Zade, Katrin Spira Live music: Die Nerven Video: Rebecca Riedel Costume design: Annette Riedel Costume design assistance: Valerie Gasse Costume design Trainee: Julia Reder Stage design: Katrin Brack Stage design assistance: Alena Georgi Stage design Trainee: Cécile Marcand Light design: Erich Schneider |
Frank Witzel won the 2015 German Book Prize for his touchingly humorous story of a thirteen-and-a-half-year-old boy from the Hessian provinces who is on the cusp of adulthood. Woven into this story of apprenticeship and the travels of an adolescent is a meticulous reconstruction of the old West Germany. Witzel depicts the political awakening of a country which is just beginning to shake off the fustiness of the immediate post-war era.
This period of upheaval is evoked in a kaleidoscopic narrative composed of varying literary forms – ranging from interview transcripts to action sequences, from interior monologue to philosophical treatise. The result is an audacious tug-of-war between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the Catholic Church and psychoanalysis, first love and political radicalisation, humour and depression. Armin Petras is known for his artistic examination of Germany’s East-West history and recently produced his adaptation of Christa Wolf’s »Divided Heaven« for the Schaubühne. With this world premiere of his adaptation of Witzel’s novel, he now focuses on post-war history from a West-German perspective. (Schaubühne) |
armin petras
Armin Petras was born in 1964 in Meschede, Sauerland, Germany. In 1969 his parents moved with him to the GDR. He grew up in East Berlin, where he studyied and graduated directing from 1985 to 1987 at the Academy of Dramatic Arts "Ernst Busch" Berlin. In 1988 Petras went back to West Berlin.
His theater career began as an assistant director at Frankfurt TAT and at the Munich Kammerspiele. He became director in 1992 in Frankfurt (Oder), moved in 1994 to Chemnitz, where he worked with Rio Reiser, and was from 1996 permanent director at the Schauspiel Leipzig. In 1999 Christoph Nix, with whom Petras had already worked at the Theater Nordhausen, overtook him as Acting Director of the State Theatre Kassel. In 2002 Petras went as a fix in-house director and curator of Schmidtstrasse12 of the Schauspiel Frankfurt, but staged always also at other theaters (including the Volksbühne Berlin, the National Theatre Mannheim, the Schauspiel Hannover and the Munich Kammerspiele). Of central importance were the premiers of his own pieces, which came out, inter alia, at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Thalia Theater Hamburg and at the Schauspiel Leipzig. In 2003 and 2004 Armin Petras (Aka Fritz Kater) was for his plays Time to love time to die and we are camera / Jasonmaterial appointed author of the year by the trade journal Theater heute. The premiers of both pieces under his direction were invited to the festival Berliner Theatertreffen, as Petras' staging Gertrud after Einar Schleef. From 2006 to 2013 Armin Petras was theater manager of the Maxim Gorki Theater. In 2007 he opened in Moscow with a guest performance of his Ensemble the free "Joseph Beuys Stage", was shown Juri Klawdiews "Let's go, the car is waiting." Petras adapted inter alia at the Gorki Theater, Fatih Akın feature film Gegen die Wand, in cooperation with the Schauspiel Leipzig, Clemens Meyers successful novel When we were dreaming, and the science fiction novel I'll be here in sunshine and in shadow of Christian Kracht. Armin Petras made the Maxim Gorki Theater a place for contentious political debate. In the seven years of his directorship the theater brought out over 200 new productions. Since summer 2013, Armin Petras is Acting Director of the State Theatre Stuttgart and, since 2014 Member of the German Academy of Performing Arts. |
katrin brack
Katrin Brack (* 1958) is a German stage designer. From 1978 to 1984 Brack studied stage design at the Dusseldorf Art Academy in the class of Karl Kneidl. After her studies, she worked as the assistant of Karl-Ernst Herrmann at the Schauspielhaus Bochum, then under the direction of Claus Peymann. She worked among others, at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, the Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, the Schaubühne Berlin, the Volksbühne Berlin, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, at the Thalia Theater Hamburg, the Munich Kammerspiele and at the Burgtheater in Vienna. She worked repeatedly with the directors Dimiter Gotscheff and Luk Perceval.
Brack has received numerous awards. In 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2016 were invited pieces with their stage design to the Berliner Theatertreffen. In 2004, 2005 and 2007, she was elected in the critics' survey of the journal Theater heute to stage designer of the year. In 2006 she was awarded the German theater prize Der Faust. In 2007 she received the Viennese Nestroy Theatre Prize. Since 2009, Brack is a professor of stage design at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. She is also a member of the German Academy of Performing Arts. Awards 2004: Set designer of the year in the critics' survey of the journal Theater heute for Black Battles and Dogs (Kampf des Negers und der Hunde) 2005: Set designer of the year in the critics' survey of the journal Theater heute for Ivanov 2006: German theater prize Der Faust in the category Best Art Costume / Stage for Ivanov 2007: Set designer of the year in the critics' survey of the journal Theater heute for Tartuffe 2007: Vienna Nestroy Theatre Prize in the category Best Art Direction. Web links Literatur von und über Katrin Brack im Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Meisterin des Minimalismus - Die Bühnenbildnerin Katrin Brack, Deutsche Welle - Kultur 21 30 Bühnenbildner im deutschsprachigen Theater: Katrin Brack Seite vom Goethe-Institut Katrin Brack in der Internet Movie Database (englisch) |
|
SWR2 Radio
|
Reviews