Ulrich Rasche
Born in Bochum in 1969. Studied Art History and Comparative Literature. He achieved national prominence as a director with his choral project «Singing! Immateriell arbeiten», first performed in 2004 at the Palast der Republik in Berlin. This was followed by productions at Stuttgart State Theatre («Church Songs», choral project, 2005; «The Waves» after Virginia Woolf, 2007; «Salome» by Oscar Wilde, 2009; «The Apocalypse» from the New Testament, 2013), at the Wiener Festwochen («This is not a love song», 2007), the Volksbühne Berlin («Sea Pieces» by Friedrich Schiller, 2009), Schauspiel Frankfurt («Wilhelm Meister. A theatrical transmission» after J. W. Goethe, 2010) and the Sophiensæle Berlin («Die Entführung aus dem Serail» after W. A. Mozart, 2010). At Theater Bonn he dramatised and directed Heinrich von Kleist’s «Michael Kohlhaas» in 2011. In 2013 Ulrich Rasche was awarded the Berlin Akademie der Künste’s Art Prize. In 2014 he co-produced «The Cosmic Octave » by Nis-Momme Stockmann (Sophiensæle Berlin). This was followed by further works that included «Danton’s Death» by Georg Büchner (2015, Schauspiel Frankfurt), «The Robbers» by Friedrich Schiller (2016, Residenztheater Munich, invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2017), «Seven Against Thebes/Antigone» by Aeschylus/Sophocles (2017, Schauspiel Frankfurt), «Woyzeck» by Georg Büchner (2017, Theater Basel, invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2018), «The Notebook» (2018, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2019), «The Persians» by Aeschylus (2018, Salzburg Festival), «Electra» by Hugo von Hofmannsthal (2019, Residenztheater Munich), «The Bacchae» by Euripides (2019, Vienna Burgtheater) and «4.48 Psychosis» by Sarah Kane (2020, Deutsches Theater Berlin).
Productions
The cycle of revenge and retribution is endless. Every drop of blood spilt has to be atoned for with more. Everyone thinks they have the law and the will of the gods on their side and this conviction drives them on to commit new injustices. This is the spiral of violence that grips the ruling house of the Atrides in Aeschylus’s «Agamemnon», the first part of his trilogy «The Oresteia».
Agamemnon
Georg Büchner’s fragile fragment, one of the most important dramas in German literature, is based on the case of the soldier Woyzeck, who murdered his lover and was sentenced to death in 1824. Büchner was familiar with the facts of this historic criminal case which were detailed in legal, medical and psychological reports. He shows a murder of jealousy and the events that lead up to it: Woyzeck, «a good chap and a poor devil», forced onto the lowest level of society financially, humiliated by his superiors, experimented upon by science, is exposed to a radical lack of empathy from the world around him. As a result, he becomes guilty, once his fears, instincts and desires break out obscenely from inside him.
Woyzeck