Ellen Hofmann

Robert Icke has congenially translated Arthur Schnitzler's play «Professor Bernhardi» into the present day. The doctor Ruth Wolff not only comes into conflict with her colleagues and the maxims of the Catholic Church, but also into a media shitstorm. The «Times» of London celebrated «The Doctor» as an «open-heart operation on our present day, which gets more complicated the deeper you cut».

A warrior of God, heretic, saint: at an early age Jeanne d’Arc heard voices that commanded her in God’s name to defend France against England in the Hundred Years War. She helped the feudal state under King Charles VII to victory before falling into the hands of the English, being accused of heresy, convicted and burnt at the stake aged nineteen. Friedrich Schiller presents her martyrdom, »subordinates the historical truth to the laws of poetry« and creates – in Thomas Mann’s words – a consummate »opera in words«.