Roland Schimmelpfennig Die vier Himmelsrichtungen
World premiere
Coproduction with the Deutsches Theater Berlin
End of performance approx. 9.15 p.m.
PREMIERE
URAUFFÜHRUNG
- 31 July 2011, 19:30
- 02 August 2011, 19:30
- 03 August 2011, 19:30
- 04 August 2011, 19:30
- 05 August 2011, 19:30
- 06 August 2011, 19:30
Print programme (PDF)
Roland Schimmelpfennig, Stage Director
Johannes Schütz, Set and Costume Design
Ulrich Beck, Dramaturgy
Robert Grauel, Lighting
Satoshi Okamoto, Music
Although they do not know it about each other, it is the most important day in the life of two men – one of them has an accident with his truck, abandons the cargo by the wayside and starts descending a slippery downward slope; the other finds the 400 cartons with modeling balloons, and thus begins his career as an entertainer. One of them is from the north, brings rain with him and buys a revolver; the other comes from the south and thinks that he is Perseus. Both fall in love with the young woman with snake-like hair. She works as a waitress, reminds them of Medusa and is accompanied by the West Wind. From all the points of the compass, life brings together the people in this play, apparently without any plan – haphazardly, they run into a doctor, the owner of a liquor shop or the director of a slaughterhouse. Only Madame Oiseau, the fortune-teller from the east, knows that they will each become each other’s fate. And that somebody will leave forever today. Roland Schimmelpfennig’s play gradually reveals the moment when these life stories will meet and mesh. It shows the individual’s lust for life, and how it grows as death approaches. Roland Schimmelpfennig, born in 1967, has won many awards for his dramatic oeuvre and is the most widely performed contemporary author in Germany. Most recently, his play Der goldene Drache won the Mülheim Theater Prize for Schimmelpfennig’s own production at the Vienna Burgtheater, and was named Best Play of 2009 by Theater heute.