Mercury

In the organizer's words:

MERCURY
A search for clues by Michał Borczuch and ensemble

Content

Freddie Mercury, the frontman of the legendary British rock band Queen, spent a lot of time in Munich from 1979 to 1985. He lived in several apartments here, made close friends and recorded his first solo album. What drew him to the Isar? Love, the wild nightlife and the many meeting places of the gay community? Giorgio Moroder's Musicland Studios and their groundbreaking innovations in electronic music? Or did he simply want to escape the rigid British tax laws?

Polish director Michaƚ Borczuch sets out with the ensemble in search of traces of the star's legacy and the freedom he found between the Glockenbachviertel and the Arabellahochhaus. What is left today of the world through which the spirit of the planet Mercury - incidentally the smallest and fastest in the solar system - moved back then?

Freddie Mercury, who himself took great care to preserve his iconographic presence for eternity, remains a figure full of contradictions: known as a party animal and exalted stage king, he is often described as introverted in private. While he never came out publicly, he flaunted the trappings of his homosexuality at performances. Like him, many who crossed his path fell victim to the AIDS epidemic; many subcultural venues were gentrified. A portrait of his life in Munich is inevitably also a portrait of a lost time.

Michaƚ Borczuch, who already explored the Scholl siblings and their impact on the present day in "Es waren ihrer sechs" in 2021, returns to the Residenztheater to once again draw lines between then and now, between document and fiction.

Artistic Director

Production Michał Borczuch

Stage and costumes Dorota Nawrot

Music Bartosz Dziadosz

Lighting and video design Robert Mleczko

Dramaturgy Katrin Michaels

Research and artistic collaboration Sara Dec