Cassandra

by Christa Wolf

With: Justine Hauer, Nicole Kersten, Bettina Marugg
Director: Frank Heuel
Room: Annika Ley

Premiere March 23, 2017, theaterimballsaal

The next performances

November 11, 2022, 8 pm
November 12, 2022, 8 pm
November 13, 2022, 6 pm

In 2017 we released KASSANDRA, a stage adaptation of Christa Wolf’s text. Frank Heuel decided to have this multi-layered text narrated by the three actresses Justine Hauer, Nicole Kersten and Bettina Marugg, who with their individual view of the Cassandra material mirrored the multitude of aspects from today’s perspective. How does this text read today in light of the war in Europe?

Cassandra, the daughter of the Trojan king Priam, received the gift of prophecy from the god Apollo. However, because she refused to be his wife, he put a curse on her: no one should believe her predictions. A terrible and fateful combination: Cassandra recognizes the signs of impending war, foresees the fall of Troy, but her warnings go unheard. Even more: her father has her imprisoned and eventually she is taken away by the victors as a slave and finally murdered.

In Christa Wolf’s story, published in East and West Germany in 1983, Cassandra sits as a prisoner at the gates of the palace of Mycenae, awaiting her death. Without self-pity or sentimentality, she uses her last hour to retrace the evolution of a hopeless war and realize the truth about herself.

Wolf succeeds in creating a triad of content: her KASSANDRA tells of the necessity of one’s own positioning within a political system, she partially overlays Cassandra’s voice with her own, and she offers a glimpse into a community that can be seen as a reaction to patriarchal society. KASSANDRA by Christa Wolf is a powerful work about resistance and isolation, private love and social obligation, withdrawal and struggle.

Cassandra. “A passionate performance by the three actresses creates an insight into Christa Wolf’s best-known masterpiece that is worth seeing, pointed and entertaining.” (kultura-extra.de)