Liebe Macht Tod
or The Play of Romeo and Juliet
by Thomas Brasch
after William Shakespeare
Opening: 19 July 2024, Andere Welt Bühne, Strausberg
Their youthful romance is considered – despite (or perhaps because of) its tragic ending – to be the greatest love story of all time. However, Thomas Brasch’s adaptation of Romeo and Juliet debunks their glorified idea with its very title, thereby also shifting the perspective on the famous Shakespeare original.
Against the backdrop of aristocratic power struggles, marriage arrangements and (not only) one deadly disease raging through the city, The Play of Romeo and Juliet becomes an experimental set-up: the two teenagers in love from Verona become the objects of contemplation for two new characters created by Brasch: the researching brother Laurence and the prostitute Susan Schorfmaul disguised as brother John. Between corny humor and the meaningful central question “Is love salvation or a house of the dead”, they declare the stage to be a laboratory and the theater itself is questioned as to its utopian potential. In this production, Strausberg becomes Verona, and the stage of Andere Welt Bühne becomes the Globe Theater.
Director Paul Spittler and his five-member ensemble, as well as the newly founded Strausberg theater choir explore the question: Does LOVE have the POWER to bring DEATH or does theater still hold a spark of hope for us?
With: Ines Burdow, Magdalena Kosch, Julian Moritz, Moritz Sauer, Melanie Seeland & the Strausberger theater choir of Andere Welt Bühne
Director: Paul Spittler
Dramaturgy: Sandra Wolf
Stage: Emanuel Schleiermacher
Costumes & make-up: Ann-Christine Müller, Zoë Stach
Music & sound design: Tim Andersen
Light: Dietrich Baumgarten
Video: Bodo Strecke
Funded by the Ministry of Science, Research and Culture of the State of Brandenburg.
Photocredit: Julia Otto
“Moritz Sauer as Brother Laurence in a duet with Ines Burdow is the real powerhouse of the evening […] and Brother Laurence mutates into Romeo’s best friend Benvolio, who Moritz Sauer plays with a blond wig as a longing bird of paradise.”
Christina Tilman, MOZ
“As always with director Paul Spittler, the central characters themselves appear in shrill, pop costume mixtures of corsets and sportswear and try to play themselves free with emotional overpower.”
Doris Meierhenrich, Berliner Zeitung
“This used to be called folk theater, and no, that doesn’t mean underchallenging, but that what happens on stage is clever and fast and furious. […] The verses fly at us with coarse wit and striking character drawings. That’s how close theater can sometimes get, so topical (instead of dully updating) that Berlin sometimes looks like the province.”
Erik Zielke, nd
