Residenztheater, 19.30 o'clock
Wed 09 Oct
Residenztheater, 19.30 o'clock
Sat 02 Nov
Further dates follow
AGAMEMNON
by Aeschylus
translated by Walter Jens
Premiere 08. December 2023
Residenztheater
2 Hours
No break
Age recommendation: from 14 years

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 returns home in triumph after ten years fighting the war against Troy to be greeted by his wife Clytemnestra with hatred and a desire for revenge. Not only because of Cassandra, the «spoils of war» he presents to Clytemnestra as his lover, but above all because he sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia in order to secure a favourable wind from the gods for his fleet. For Aeschylus, however, the conflict between Agamemnon and Clytemnestra is far more than a personal dispute between a married couple: it is a political battle about how society is run: the matriarchy is challenging the patriarchy.

«Over 2,000 years ago, Tantalus tested the gods and their omniscience by preparing an abominable meal – and for this they put a curse on his family. From then on, every generation of Tantalus’s descendants would see their offspring murdered by members of their own family. Out of revenge and hatred, the gods unleashed a relentless spiral of killing that only Orestes was able to end. Now, without believing in the gods’ existence or knowing of any curse, we still see ourselves confronted with an unstoppable cycle of violence and never-ending war. Can Aeschylus’s Oresteia help us to understand the visible and invisible workings of power and can we use it to learn how to stop the killing?» Ulrich Rasche

Trailer

Artistic Direction

Direction und Stage Design Ulrich Rasche
Composition und Musical Direction Nico van Wersch
Costume Design Romy Springsguth
Choral Direction Jürgen Lehmann
Lighting Gerrit Jurda
Dramaturgy Michael Billenkamp