CarolinConrad

«Agnes Bernauer», first performed in the GDR in 1977, starts like a stop-motion fairy tale: after the death of her mother, Agnes is sent out to work by her bankrupt father. But she is unable to believe that she will find a profession that «gives her pleasure», and decides to marry money. Her rise in society happens quickly: Agnes becomes pregnant and takes Albrecht as a husband: a squeamish only child and mother’s boy who is pampered in the golden cage of the Werdenfels’ family business.

In June 1816 the «Medusa», the fastest frigate of its time, sets to sea. Its destination is Saint-Louis in Senegal. There are two hundred and forty people on board – besides the sailors, most of them are soldiers, but they also include the colony’s Governor and his family together with priests, teachers, doctors and engineers. Two days’ journey from their destination the ship runs aground on a sandbank and splits. As there is not enough room for everyone in the lifeboats, a raft is cobbled together for the lifeboats to tow on shore. But as soon as they set off, the rudderless and heavily overloaded raft is left behind by the boats on which the dignitaries are rescuing themselves. Of one hundred and seventeen men only fifteen will survive. Many of them will fall victim to their own comrades because the few goods they were able to save – barrels of wine, sodden biscuits, a few weapons and valuables – are as heavily fought over as the power the make decisions about possible rescue measures.

In her trilogy Judith Herzberg uses subtle humour and a delicate hand to portray a Jewish extended family from Amsterdam between the 1970s and the turn of the millennium. It is a chronicle of emotions and complex relationships. In a cycle that spans three generations there are marriages, children are conceived, couples separate, fall in love with someone new – and get married again. To outsiders, members of the family and their friends appear to lead the same everyday lives as their contemporaries and when they meet at weddings or funerals, they talk, dance, fall in love and argue. But, quite casually and suddenly, glimpses of wounded souls appear behind this cheerful façade.

Vor sechzig Jahren, am 11. April 1961, begann in Jerusalem der Prozess gegen Adolf Eichmann, Leiter des nationalsozialistischen Referats für «Judenangelegenheiten» und einer der Hauptverantwortlichen des organisierten Genozids. Heinar Kipphardt verarbeitete die Verhörprotokolle des israelischen Geheimdienstes mit Eichmann zu seinem Dokumentartheaterstück «Bruder Eichmann», das 1983 am Residenztheater uraufgeführt wurde. Regisseur Sebastian Baumgarten wird sich dem bei der Uraufführung kontrovers diskutierten Text mit den Möglichkeiten und Mitteln des digitalen Theaters annähern.

Der 1974im Gebiet Luhansk geborene ukrainische Autor Serhij Zhadan hat mit seinem Roman «Internat» 2014 auf beklemmende Weise über den Krieg im Donbass erzählt. Dabei schickt er seinen Helden auf eine dreitägige Reise durch die Hölle.