TARTUFFE
The famous Schaubühne in Berlin has joined forces with a German director renowned for outrageousness and chaos, the incredible Michael Thalheimer. Molière strung out on amphetamines.
TARTUFFE SUPERSTAR
At the request of the renowned Schaubühne in Berlin, the fearless German director Michael Thalheimer has orchestrated a sombre theatrical masquerade where characters in the throes of religious fanaticism are consumed by a frenetic struggle. This dark, sardonic farce is more modern and relevant than ever. Powerless, the audience witnesses the triumph of an ideological system driven by frightening fundamentalism – Molière strung out on amphetamines. Not to be missed.
His skin tattooed with Bible verses, a devilishly sexy Tartuffe shamelessly wreaks havoc on a bourgeois family dominated by a good father blinded by his devotion. Imprisoned by an infernal set design that keeps them off-kilter, a family on the verge of death clings to the last vestiges of its power. A radical reinterpretation of the 17th century classic, this Tartuffe features some of the most dynamic actors in Germany, with Lars Eidinger in the leading role as a rock ‘n roll Christ-like figure who imbues this sanctimonious hypocrite with an unsettling magnetism. Grotesque, desperate and visionary – we’ve not heard the last of Molière
CREDITS
PRODUCED BY SCHAUBÜHNE AM LEHNINER PLATZ
WRITTEN BY MOLIÈRE
TRANSLATED TO GERMAN BY WOLFGANG WIENS
DIRECTED BY MICHAEL THALHEIMER
PERFORMED BY LARS EIDINGER + CATHLEN GAWLICH + FRANZ HARTWIG + INGO HÜLSMANN + URS JUCKER + FELIX RÖMER + KAY BARTHOLOMÄUS SCHULZE + TILMAN STRAUSS + LUISE WOLFRAM + EVA MECKBACH
SET DESIGN OLAF ALTMANN
COSTUME DESIGN NEHLE BALKHAUSEN
DRAMATURGY BERND STEGEMANN
LIGHTING DESIGN ERICH SCHNEIDER
MUSIC BERT WREDE
PRESENTED WITH THE SUPPORT OF GOETHE-INSTITUT MONTRÉAL + MINISTÈRE DES AFFAIRES ÉTRANGÈRES D’ALLEMAGNE
IN ASSOCIATION WITH TP1
WRITTEN BY DIANE JEAN
TRANSLATED BY NEIL KROETSCH
PREMIERED AT SCHAUBUHNE, BERLIN, ON DCEMBER 20, 2013
MICHAEL THALHEIMER | SCHAUBÜHNE (Berlin)
Exceptional Artist
Initially an actor, Michael Thalheimer directed his first play in 1997. He tends to stage classical texts that he adapts in radical fashion, using spare, abstract set designs and placing the actor at the very heart of his work. He chooses his actors carefully, and plunges them into a vision of a dark and disillusioned world where force and power predominate. While staging classical German plays by Büchner, Schiller and Wedekind, he has also breathed new life into the plays of Chekhov, Eugene O’Neill, Aeschylus and Ibsen. In 2001 he received the Innovation Award from the Berliner Theatertreffen, and in 2002 the Nestroy Prize in Vienna and the Friedrich Luft Prize in Berlin. He has directed operas by Janácek, Verdi and Mozart, and in 2010 his first work to be presented in France, Combat de nègre et de chiensby Koltès, dazzled audiences and critics alike. Considered in Germany as a major director, he is celebrated at major international festivals. He was a guest director at Théâtre de La Colline in Paris in 2014, along with Heiner Muller and Otto von Horvath.
