Schlachten

Body, history, violence – three key concepts in Heiner Müller’s work, which is as multi-layered and marked by fractures as the 
life of the author himself. Born in 1929 in Saxony and inextricably connected to Berlin, he was censored, feared, embraced hesitantly and finally celebrated, and he presents us with challenges, only rarely without humour. Following Dantons Tod / Iphigenie (Danton’s Death / Iphigenia) and Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and Her Children), this production is the conclusion of Oliver Frljić’s War Trilogy. In it he complements Philoktet with additional texts by Heiner Müller, Die Schlacht (The Battle) and Germania 3 Gespenster am Toten Mann (Ghosts at the Dead Man) in particular. In his adaptation of Sophocles’ Philoctetes, Müller sets up his heroes to clash in a game about reason and violence, lies and political constraints. In a system whose inner logic allows its own means to undermine the well-postulated end, there can be no winner. In Die Schlacht, barbarism is intrinsic to the system. Five scenes from Nazi Germany form a panopticon of personal corruption and amoral excessiveness.

Premiere on 25/März 2023

Photo: Esra Rotthoff