Der zerbrochene Krug. Tambora

In the organizer's words:

The jug is gone. Broken - but by whom? Kleist's comedy about the guilty village magistrate Adam conceals a highly serious dynamic: blackmail and sexual coercion are combined in a system of power imbalances and fear - against the gleaming backdrop of colonial expansionism. Who has an interest in the truth not coming to light - and for what reason? Is it really just a jug that has been broken, or is there not a much greater damage being negotiated in this courtroom play?

In his new work, director Philipp Preuss approaches this classic stage material with a great deal of musicality and looks into the mechanisms of a system in which many are guilty: Kleist's historical background is the economically expanding Netherlands, which wants to secure the wealth from areas of present-day Indonesia by force of war - gained through the dubious methods of the world's first joint stock company, the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC ). Even more than the question of the jug smasher, the question of life and death arises in the courtroom: will the innocent Eve succeed in saving her fiancé Ruprecht from the army's grasp, which will send him to certain death in Batavia, today's Jakarta? And who benefits from this system?

The social mechanisms that unfold in the fictional village of Huisum with Kleistian comedy and abysmal depth are timeless...

Find out more and download materials for the production at the bottom of the page!

A co-production with the FFT Düsseldorf.

Voices

Dietmar Zimmermann, Theater:Pur:

"Philipp Preuss directs with a lot of humor and highly ironic character interpretations. Felix Römer plays the village magistrate Adam magnificently - also magnificently funny, as unrestrainedly as he exaggerates his role as a depraved judicial body[...The performance of Dagmar Geppert as Mrs. Brigitte, who not only claims to have seen the devil, but also emerges from a cloud of fog as the incarnate Gollseibeiuns and then proceeds to convict the village magistrate in spirited Dutch, is captivating [...] But this production is not only comedic, it is also highly conscious of language and form [...]."

Klaus Stübler, Ruhrnachrichten:

"The comedy is not neglected at all. Felix Römer's exaggerated Adam contributes to this in particular [...]."

Lars von der Gönna, WAZ:

"It's been a long time since we've seen an Eve of such harrowing intensity: Marie Schulte-Wernings completely overwhelmed out of inner distress [...]. Joschua Zilinske adds extreme value to the otherwise unappreciated role of Ruprecht. Physically an angry rebel, but he carries Kleist's language masterfully as the heart on his tongue [...]."

Price information:

Regular: 23,50€ Reduced: 10€