Clara

With Justine Hauer, Nicole Kersten
Directed and written by Marlin de Haan
Equipment Julia Rautenhaus
Music / Sound Julia Klomfass
Assistance Jennifer Merten

Premiere
04. April 2019, theaterimballsaal, Bonn

Further performances
27, 28 September 2019, theaterimballsaal, Bonn

Clara Schumann remains a mystery to us. Everything we know about her as a person and her times comes from an extensive estate of letters, diaries, and various biographies. Your 200. Director Marlin de Haan and her team are taking the occasion of her 50th birthday, which is being celebrated this year, to form their own picture of her and her work. Who was this woman who was celebrated as a star nationally and internationally? What shaped them, what were their desires, their goals? What conflicts did she have to overcome and is the balancing act between child and career (for both husband and wife) easier nowadays?

Clara Wieck grew up as a child of divorce with her father, who taught her piano. True to his expectations, she made her first appearances at the age of eight and was hailed as a child prodigy. Her concert tours have taken her all over Europe. Clara supported the musical career of her husband Robert Schumann, took care of their eight children and the household, and kept her own free space for her music. After her husband’s death, she managed to support her family and pursue her goals as a musician through concert tours at home and abroad, as a teacher and publicist. On stage she impressed her audience with virtuoso piano playing and special presence, promoting composers of her time through the selection of her repertoire.

Marlin de Haan works at the intersection of performing and visual arts and is interested in the possibilities and limits of fields of action, forms of representation and narrative. She directs plays, performances and films, designs stage spaces, realizes exhibitions and interactions in public and art spaces. Her works have been shown at the FFT Düsseldorf, Schauspielhaus Bochum, Schauspielhaus Hamburg, among others, and invited to various festivals such as “Favoriten”, “Freischwimmer” and “WildWest”. CLARA is her first work with the fringe ensemble.