2016-11-23 19:00:00

NATHAN THE WISE

after Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

DIRECTED BY: Armin Petras
TRANSLATED BY: Lucian Blaga
STAGE DESIGN: Dragoş Buhagiar
COSTUMES: Katja Strohschneider
ORIGINAL MUSIC: Marius Mihalache
MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: Thomas Kürstner, Sebastian Vogel
VIDEO: Rebecca Ridel
CHOREOGRAPHY: Berit Jentzsch
PLAYWRIGHT: Verena Eitel
CAST: Peter Kurt, Katharina Knap, Ofelia Popii, Ciprian Scurtea, Susanne Böwe, Horst Kotterba, Paul Grill, Cristina Juks, Maria Tomoiagă, Alexandru Udrea;

With the extraordinary participation of the musician Marius Mihalache.

duration: 2h 15min / ticket price: 25 lei; reduced: 0 lei

In Nathan the wise, Lessing pleads for the respect and the acknowledgement of religions that fight each other – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The performance directed by Armin Petras is the result of one of the biggest co-production projects carried on by Radu Stanca National Theatre of Sibiu along with the Stuttgart National Theatre. The project is not limited to a simple staging of the theatre play, as it also pursues actual goals, the social dimension of terrorism and racism in particular, in these two countries, each with its singularities. Lessing’s text is “translated” by considering the insight of the debates on violence in nowadays Europe.

Nathan the wise is a monumental production, not only through the scenery of Dragoş Buhagiar – a temple destroyed by fire, where the ghosts of a supposedly united Europe are roaming –, but also through the resurrection of Lessing’s play in the contemporary European context and through the association of two groups of actors, one from Sibiu (Ofelia Popii and Ciprian Scurtea in the main roles) and one from Stuttgart, each speaking in their own language and sometimes even in English, thus building a pseudo-communication. Multiculturalism – ethnic, religious, sexual – is a relatively recent concept, but the reality it standardizes has always existed. What Armin Petras does with Lessing’s play is to place it, with all the problems it raises – differences in ethnicity, religion, sexuality – in the European Union and at its border, in Israel and Palestine, and to ask himself if this ideal of “unity in diversity” is not actually a utopia, maybe even intentionally a utopia, concealing intolerances perpetuated for centuries, under a thick layer of demagogy.”
Oana Stoica – Dilema Veche, August 2015

Performance not recommended under 14

RADU STANCA NATIONAL THEATRE OF SIBIU IN CO-PRODUCTION WITH SCHAUSPIEL STUTTGART

Date of the international premiere: 15 June 2015 (FITS)

Date of the national premiere: 20 September 20 2015 (TNRS)