THE INSULTED AND INJURED
In order to dismantle the totalitarian logic of Big Brother, Frank Castorf gives a hard-core edge to soap opera, employing a reality TV approach to this presentation, which is loosely based on Dostoyevsky’s first great novel, The Insulted and Injured, written upon his return from exile and imprisonment in Siberia for subversion. The set is an imposing affair, a massive structure worthy of a Hollywood movie lot, complete with screens and live musicians. It pivots to reveal a glass house on one side and a shack on the other.
The forestage features a patio and a pool enmeshed in ice. This sordid tale of power, sex and money slips, slides and falls apart at the seams. Scrutinized, tracked and pursued by microphones and cameras hidden everywhere, even under the pillows, the characters dash about like flies caught in a web of intrigue. Overhead, a giant screen disgorges a flood of commercials and ads interspersed with porno films. Hypnotized by roars of bitter laughter, the audience dances with wolves.
BY
FIODOR MIKHAÏLOVITCH DOSTOÏEVSKI
ADAPTATION AND DIRECTION
FRANK CASTORF
SET AND COSTUME DESIGN
BERT NEUMANN
MUSIC
SIR HENRY
VIDEO
JAN SPECKENBACH
LIGHTING DESIGN
RAINER CASPER
DRAMATURG
CARL HEGEMANN
CAST
KATHRIN ANGERER
HENDRIK ARNST
SUSANNE DÜLLMANN
HENRY HÜBCHEN
ASTRID MEYERFELDT
MILAN PESCHEL
IRINA POTAPENKO
BERNHARD SCHÜTZ
JEANETTE SPASSOVA
JOACHIM TOMASCHEWSKY
MARTIN WUTTKE
