2h 30’ with intermission Susanne Böwe Paul Grill Cristina Juks Sandra Gerling Horst Kotterba Peter Kurth Ofelia Popii Ciprian Scurtea Maria Tomoiagă Alexandru Udrea Marius Mihalache
Directed by ARMIN PETRAS
Set designer: Dragoş Buhagiar Costumes: Katja Strohschneider Original music: Marius Mihalache Music and sound designer: Thomas Kürstner, Sebastian Vogel Video: Rebecca Riedel Choreographer: Berit Jentzsch Dramaturg: Verena Elisabet Eitel Lighting: Gregor Roth
In a unique gesture of tolerance, Lessing has the wise Jew Nathan advocate an unprejudiced and respectful parallel existence for all religions. At the end of the piece, it turns out that the Jewish girl Recha, Nathan’s adopted daughter, the Christian Templar, and the Moslem Saladin are all members of the same family. This dramatic turn of events allows Lessing to eliminate the dispute among religions and achieve reconciliation within newly created family bonds. But only provisionally: Lessing’s construct is quickly overtaken by bitter reality. Then, as now, religious constructions of reality and worldviews seem to clash incompatibly with one another; they discharge in daily terror and excessive violence. In a mixed ensemble from the Schauspiel Stuttgart and the Radu Stanca National Theatre Sibiu, the piece searches for the causes of conflict and a vision of a contemporary enlightened idea. In the confusion of languages – each actor speaks in his or her mother tongue – political and private arguments clash, and identities are taken on and reassigned. Communication and understanding are revealed as the key to peaceful co–existence in dialogue on stage – their failure opens the path to battlegrounds of Babylonian chaos.
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