Macbeth

Theatertreffen 2024 | 10 remarkable productions

Macbeth – Drei Darsteller*innen in Anzügen sind auf einer Matratze in einem gefliesten Becken

By William Shakespeare

German translation by Angela Schanelec and Jürgen Gosch

Text version by Koen Tachelet

Schauspielhaus Bochum

Premiere: 12 May 2023

Can one of William Shakespeare‘s goriest tragedy be funny? Director Johan Simons and his stupendous cast make the attempt in “Macbeth” – and create brilliant theatre.

War hero Macbeth and his friend Banquo return from the battlefields. He is revered as a hero in his Scottish home and a group of weird creatures even predict that he will be king. But in order to reach the throne, he has to commit not just one, but several murders. Encouraged by his Lady, he sets to his bloody work until there is only one person left standing in his way – he himself.

Director Johan Simons reads William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth”, written between 1603 and 1607, as a comedy – and brings off a veritable theatrical coup. Marina Galic, Jens Harzer and Stefan Hunstein slip into all the parts with ease and virtuosity, turning this “Macbeth” into a celebration of the art of acting.

Statement of the Jury

It is basically an obvious idea, and now director Johan Simons has taken a spirited hold of it. He construes William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” as the prototype of the Theatre of the Absurd. Which is exactly what this horror play with all its improbabilities and its penchant for the supernatural and the cruelly grotesque has always been. Conceived as a farce, the tragedy shines in new splendour, bestowed not least by Marina Galic, Jens Harzer and Stefan Hunstein. They play all the roles and use the rapid transitions from one character to the next as opportunities for abstruse gags. As sad clowns, they don Shakespeare’s characters like costumes while constantly intuiting the senselessness of it all. This lends their characters a surprising and, all their savagery notwithstanding, touching vulnerability. “Fair is foul and foul is fair”, is the witches’ announcement at the beginning of the play. Simons and his cast make this reversal of values work. The tragic is comical, the comical is tragic.

Tojuror Sascha Westphal’s video statement in the Berliner Festspiele Media Library (in German)

ProgrammeBooklet (pdf, 7.1 MB)

Artistic Team

Johan Simons Director

Nadja Sofie Eller Stage Design

Greta Goiris Costume Design

Florian Schaumberger Video

Bernd Felder Lighting Design

Koen Tachelet Dramaturgy

Friederike Harmstorf Associate Director

Cast

Stefan Hunstein Witch

Jens Harzer Witch / Macbeth / Duncan / Malcolm / Murderer

Marina Galic Witch / Lady Macbeth / Banquo / Macduff / Lady Macduff / Son

With the kind support of Freundeskreis Schauspielhaus Bochum e. V.

Audience Talk

Sunday, 19.5.2024 after the performance

Impulse: Katja Kipping (Former Social Senator and lifeguard)

Watch the full-length performance on television

Saturday, 11.5.2024 at 20:15 on 3sat

Watch the full-length performance online

in the 3sat-Mediathek and in the BerlinerFestspiele Media Library from Thursday, 2.5. to Friday, 30.8.2024

Next date:

• Date Saturday, 18/May/2024 20:00 (1 more date)
• Venue Haus der Berliner Festspiele - Große Bühne
• Address Schaperstraße 24, 10719 Berlin-Wilmersdorf