by Ivo Briedis (LV), Ceren Ercan (TR), Goran Ferčec (HR), Lothar Kittstein (DE), Alexander Molchanov (RU), Marie Nimier (FR)

MACBETH OVER EUROPE is the second part of the series THE GREAT WORLD THEATER. 6 authors from all over Europe wrote short plays inspired by Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”.

With: Nicole Kersten, Oleg Zhukov, David Fischer, Maciek Brzoska, Manuel Klein

Director: Frank Heuel
Space and costumes: Annika Ley
Dramaturgy: Harald Redmer
Premiere: May 19, 2016, theaterimballsaal, Bonn

Six authors from different European countries were each commissioned to write a text for the theater based on the Shakespearean drama MACBETH.

Fair is foul, and foul is fair
The major themes of the material revolve around power and guilt, order and chaos, the power of supernatural, divine order, rebellion against nature and fate. Macbeth is a bloody parable of the abysses of human existence, of the inability to act with moral integrity, of disheveled souls in the pitiless thicket of history. As such, it repeatedly opens up scope for debate and stocktaking of acute social conditions. In concrete terms, this applies to a Europe teetering between autonomy and heteronomy, in acute danger of being torn apart by the “dark” forces of the market, of losing itself in the claims it has made, only with difficulty able to defend the structure it has set up.
The authors met for a workshop in Münster at the beginning of December and, together with Frank Heuel (direction and concept) and Harald Redmer (dramaturgy), agreed on binding rules of the game and key content points for everyone.

MACBETH OVER EUROPE is a project by fringe ensemble/Macbeth GbR and phoenix5 in co-production with theaterimballsaal, Bonn, FFT Düsseldorf, and Theater im Pumpenhaus, Münster. Sponsored by: Ministry for Family, Children, Youth, Culture and Sports of the State of NRW, Federal City of Bonn, City of Münster, Kunststiftung NRW, Kulturstiftung Matrong.