Markus Schadel

Ephraim Cabot has built his farm in New England up out of nothing, through hard work and the sweat of his brow and he keeps his three sons in line with Puritan discipline. However, instead of handing on the fruits of their collective toil to the next generation, he introduces the young Abbie to them as his bride, thereby unleashing a tragedy of ancient dimensions. While the elder brothers entirely abandon any hope of inheriting from their father and follow the call of gold to California, a fateful triangle develops between his youngest son   Eben, his father and his step-mother – and Abbie too raises a claim to the farm that Eben is willing to defend by any means.

Lola Montez was one of the most dazzling female figures in the history of Bavaria and the city of Munich. When Lola – who was actually born Elizabeth Rosanna Gilbert – arrived in Munich in 1846, the immigration police recorded her as: «artist, dancer from Sevilla, Spain, 24 years old, Catholic, no passport.» A short time later she had become the lover of the Bavarian King Ludwig I. However, it would be too simple to reduce this fascinating woman to the scandals that were often no more than allegations against her: because in both her thinking and her actions she was centuries ahead of her time.

Medea is the most startling character in the history of literature. Like no other female figure, she leaves an unprecedented trail of blood behind her: betraying her father, murdering her brother, murdering the King of Iolcus – and that is not enough.

In his plays, the Chilean director and playwright Guillermo Calderón achieves an entirely original combination of humour and political power. Many of his texts are highly comic tales of the prejudice, ignorance and egotism that come to light through intercultural exchange. His latest play for the Residenztheater tells of the efforts of a religious sect in Munich to advertise for a newly founded settlement in Chile.

«Once the social order has been consolidated, anyone who is not alarmed by reality is as free as they wish,» Jean Jourdheuil wrote about Labiche’s work. But in this play, that alarm is felt: Lenglumé begins to realise what he might be capable of and as a result – at least for a day – his self-assurance and satisfaction crumble.

In her new work, the director Claudia Bauer, who has been invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen four times and is renowned for her work with fast and furious acting ensembles, now tackles someone who typifies Munich, the brilliant comedian Karl Valentin. In her usual, opulent stage language she will devise a homage to the Bavarian whose anarchic approach to language led the critic Alfred Kerr to invent the term «Wortzerklauberer», someone who steals words and tears them to pieces.