MARILYN - Happy Birthday, Mrs. Monroe

In the organizer's words:

Preview with Sophie von Kessel (acting/singing), / Modern String Quartet (music), Adrian Prechtel (text) and Peter Kees (narrator).

Marilyn Monroe died on the night of August 4-5, 1962, under hitherto unexplained circumstances. But her myth lives on and raises questions: Why does this Norma Jean Baker, born exactly 100 years ago on June 1, 1926 as an illegitimate child in Los Angeles, sound eternally seductive in our ears? How did she become the image for us that not only Warhol immortalized in countless colors?
A closer look at this woman also reveals a strikingly emancipated woman: she was Hollywood's first actress with her own production company, a jazz singer of remarkable presence, a resolute voice against racism. And a well-read, curious woman who wrote poetry in order to understand herself.
The Modern String Quartet approaches this truth with a sound that opens up layers. Poems from her notes unfold in unexpected musical lines and become living testimony to this special woman. Songs from Hollywood lose their varnished sheen and appear in new, surprising arrangements that bring the repressed out of the shadows. Husband Arthur Miller and psychiatrist Dr. Greenson appear - also as sonic figures. Embedded in the musical drama of Norma Jean Baker are the great love songs of that era - Coltrane, Gershwin, Porter - which give us an idea of who Marilyn Monroe actually was - A Love Supreme.
Happy Birthday, Marilyn!