About the production
Start
8 p.m.
End
10 p.m.
Co-production with Theater Basel and Schauspiel Köln, in collaboration with Staatstheater Cottbus.
The tour of the German-language premiere of »Empusion« started at the Lausitz Festival in Forst in September 2024. »Empusion« can currently be seen in Cologne. From April 2025, the co-production will travel to Basel.
The dramatisation of the latest novel by Polish Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk, whose texts have already been presented at the Lausitz Festival, is staged by one of the most important directors of his generation, Antú Romero Nunes, as a gruesome drinking binge of a lung-sick, male pre-war society around 1913.
The highlight of this production is that all the male characters in the novel are played by women. These are Anne Haug, Gro Swantje Kohlhof, Charlotte Müller, Aenne Schwarz and Sabine Waibel.
The actresses use the means of play and alienation to demonstrate patriarchal relationships and give us an insight into discarded male souls, their unfulfilled longings and dreams, but also their fantasies of power.
Görbersdorf in Silesia was long considered one of Europe’s most prestigious spa cities. Healing techniques were developed there that later made Davos in Switzerland world famous. And Görbersdorf is the setting for Tokarczuk’s »naturopathic horror story«. For the city is surrounded by a terrible mystery. As in Thomas Mann’s »Magic Mountain«, a group of male patients meet for intellectual walks in the mountain air. These gentlemen exchange misogynistic theories from Darwin, Freud, and Nietzsche, while every year a young man is killed in the nearby forest. Adapted for the stage, the novel becomes a crime story rich in dialogue. Who is responsible for the murders in the forest and village? What is the role of the Tutschis? And why are the villagers silent about what is going on?
Tokarczuk’s provocative social allegory constructs a world history of misogyny using the discussions of an exclusively male group of tuberculosis patients. On the eve of the First World War, the result is a mystical battle between a misogynistic male world and the ghosts of murdered witches who are now seeking revenge. In the secluded rural setting and the wilderness of the forests, unfathomable and uncontrollable forces are unleashed that no amount of »enlightenment« can control and which threaten to destroy the social contract.
Brought to the stage, this thriller is also the moving coming-out story of the protagonist Mieczysław Wojnicz and a reflection on our fear of The Other. Following the close of this original Lausitz production, the play will become part of the repertory of the co-producing theaters in Basel and Cologne. Directed by Antú Romero Nunes, with music by Anna Bauer and set by Matthias Koch - all three artists recently worked together on the production »A Midsummer Night's Dream«, which was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen - the utopia of a post-patriarchal life shines through in the confrontation with a discriminatory world.
Anne Haug
Anne Haug studies acting at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Throughout her career, she has always endeavored to use acting as a socially relevant art form in order to adopt and shape a stance on contemporary issues. To this end, she creates a special connection in and with herself between content-related discussion and physical expression. This is evident both in her work as an actress and as one of the most exciting authorial voices of the present day.
She intuitively uses the possibilities of acting and writing across genres to credibly bring the human to life with the most diverse means - Anne Haug effortlessly switches from slapstick, comedy, poetry, silence to drama. Anne Haug's boundless determination as an author and performer to expand the classical repertoire with conceptual and performative means in a true-to-life way makes her a sought-after protagonist of independent cinemas and stages of the present day. She works in German-speaking countries with the pioneers of new European film and theater, including Aelrun Goette, Antú Romero Nunes, Daniel Wild, Güzin Kar, Isabell Šuba, Maris Pfeiffer, Natascha Beller, Nora Abdel-Maksoud, Sarah Blaßkiewitz and Zino Wey.
She has also been writing plays as well as film and television formats since 2011 and her highly successful theater series »Projekt Schooriil« since 2013, which was invited to the Theatertreffen in 2019. Anne Haug works as an author and actress in German-speaking countries and lives in Basel and Leipzig.
Gro Swantje Kohlhof
Gro Swantje Kohlhof, grew up in Hamburg and began her acting training at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2014. From 2018 to 2023, she is a member of the ensemble at the Münchner Kammerspiele, where she works with Christopher Rüping, Stefan Pucher, Pınar Karabulut, Nora Abdel-Maksoud and Leonie Böhm, among others.
In 2019, she was voted up-and-coming actress of the year in the critics' poll conducted by the online magazine Theater heute and received the Bavarian Arts Promotion Award in 2020. Since 2022, she has also appeared as an author and directed the play »Buy Hard«, which she wrote, at the Münchner Kammerspiele with her colleague Bekim Latifi. Since 2023, she has worked as a freelance actress at the Schauspielhaus Zürich, the Maxim Gorki Theater and the Münchner Kammerspiele, among others.
Away from the stage, she has appeared in numerous film and television productions, most recently in the novel adaptation »Mittagstunde« by Lars Jessen and in the home horror film »Schlaf« by Michael Venus, for which she received the Grimme Award for her performance.
Charlotte Müller
Charlotte Müller was born in Hanover in 1981. She is a graduate of the drama school in Bochum. Her first engagement was at the Berliner Ensemble in 2005, where she worked with Claus Peymann, Philip Tiedemann and Martin Wuttke, among others. A further engagement took her to the Theater Freiburg in 2008. Here she worked with directors such as Marcus Lobbes, Christoph Frick, Felicitias Brucker, Bernadette La Hengst, Sylvia Sobottka, Johanna Wehner and René Pollesch. She later appeared as a guest in productions at the Schauspielhaus in Vienna, the Staatstheater Hannover and the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
In January 2022, she met co-acting director Armin Petras as a guest during rehearsals for the interdisciplinary production »Im Berg« and has been a permanent actress at Staatstheater Cottbus since the 22.23 season. Her roles in Cottbus include »Anna Karenina« in the production and version of the same name by Milena Michalek, as well as Dr. Dysart in Peter Shaffer's »Equus« directed by Philipp Rosendahl. Charlotte Müller is the Staatstheater's 2023 Max Grünbaum Award winner.
Aenne Schwarz
Aenne Schwarz studied German, philosophy and religious studies at the FU Berlin from 2003 to 2007 and acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts from 2007 to 2010. Her first engagement took her to the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. This led to long-term collaborations with Armin Petras, Jan Bosse, Antú Romero Nunes and Jim Rakete.
From 2013, she was a member of the ensemble at the Burgtheater Vienna, where she last appeared in Simon Stone's »Hotel Strindberg«. She has worked as a freelancer at the Thalia Theater Hamburg, the Schauspielhaus Hamburg and the Schauspiel Stuttgart.
In addition to her work in the theater, Aenne Schwarz is also active in film. In Maria Schrader's feature film »Vor der Morgenröte«, which was in the running for the Oscar for Austria, she appeared alongside Josef Hader and Barbara Sukowa as Lotte Zweig. For her performance in Eva Trobisch's »Alles ist gut«, which premiered in Locarno, Paris, Marrakesh and New York, among others, she received numerous international awards as the leading actress. Further film work followed with Jan Bonny, Daniel Brühl and Christoph Hochhäusler. For her last film work »Alle die Du bist« she received the Best Actress Award at the Malaysian international Film Festival.
Aenne Schwarz was a member of the Theater Basel ensemble from 2020 to 2023. Since the 23/24 season, she has been a guest and can be seen in the role of Titania in the production »Ein Sommernachtstraum«, invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2023.
Sabine Waibel
Sabine Waibel was born in Vienna. After training as an actress, she first went to the Landestheater St. Pölten, followed by permanent engagements at the Staatstheater Braunschweig, Staatstheater Kassel, Schauspiel Frankfurt and finally with Armin Petras at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. She has been a freelancer for several years and has worked with Frank Castorf, Pinar Karabulut, Stefan Bachmann and Milan Peschel in Cologne, Hanover, Zurich and Berlin, among others.
»Empusion« is her first work with Antú Romero Nunes.
She also works for film and television, most recently in the feature film »Überleben in Brandenburg« by Zoltan Paul, which had its world premiere at the Hofer Filmtage 2024. Sabine Waibel lives in Berlin.
Antú Romero Nunes
Antú Romero Nunes, born in Tübingen in 1983, is Portuguese and Chilean. He gained his first theater experience at Theater Lindenhof. In Chile, he worked as an assistant director for theater and film. In 2009, he completed his directing studies at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. His graduation production »Der Geisterseher« based on Schiller was invited to the Radikal jung festival in 2010.
From 2010 to 2013, Romero Nunes was in-house director at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. His production of »Die Räuber« was awarded the Friedrich Luft Prize. In 2014, he made his debut as an opera director at the Bayerische Staatsoper. This was followed by further opera work at the Komische Oper Berlin and the Grand Théatre de Genéve. With »Don Giovanni. Letzte Party« based on Mozart/da Ponte, he was invited to the Festival d'Avignon, and in 2018 to the Berlin Theatertreffen with »Die Odyssee – Eine Irrfahrt nach Homer«.
His plays have been shown at numerous international festivals, including in China, Chile, Mexico and France. From 2014 to 2019, Antú Romero Nunes was in-house director at the Thalia Theater. He has regularly directed at Schauspiel Frankfurt, the Berliner Ensemble, Schauspielhaus Zürich and the Burgtheater in Vienna, among others.
He has been co-director of drama at Theater Basel since 2020. His Basel production of »Ein Sommernachtstraum« was invited to the 2023 Berlin Theatertreffen.
»To najwažniše je hladanje. A to njeje same prašenje našeju wočow, dyrbimy tež z druhimi zmysłami hladać.«
»The most important thing is to look. And that is not just a question of our eyes, we must also look with our other senses.« Thilo von Hahn in Empusion by Olga Tokarczuk
Lucien Haug
Lucien Haug, born in Basel in 1992, is an author, dramaturge and theatrical playwright. He studied at the Bern University of the Arts and primarily writes plays in German and Swiss German. He has worked with the Junges Theater Basel and Suna Gürler for many years.
He has worked as an author for the Schauspielhaus Zürich, the Maxim Gorki Theater, the Verein der Flaneure, the Junge Marie, as a director for the Treibstoff Theatertage Basel, as a theater pedagogue for the Junge Bühne Bern and Die Voyeure, as a curator of literary events for the BuchBasel festival and leads writing workshops in various places. As an author, he often enjoys being part of the rehearsal process, working on the text while sitting or sleeping. When he is not looking for rare animals, Lucien Haug is a central defender for the national writers' football team and is writing an unreadable novel.
Anna Bauer
Anna Bauer, born in Hamburg, studied composition for film at the National School of Film and Television in London. She has worked in the theater for many years with Antú Romero Nunes, Jette Steckel and Johanna Louise Witt.
The productions »Ein Sommernachtstraum« (Theater Basel) and »Die Vaterlosen« (Münchner Kammerspiele) were invited to the Theatertreffen in 2023 and 2024. Anna composes for film and television and was among the Berlinale Talents in 2023.
After »Achilles« (Theater Basel), this is the second time she has worked with Max Kühn on the music for »Empusion«.
Max Kühn
Max Kühn, born in 1993, is a composer. He studied music with a major in jazz at the University of Music and Theater in Hamburg. He began working in the theater during his studies.
Projects with directors Elsa-Sophie Jach, Zino Wey, Franziska Autzen and Antú Romero Nunes have taken him to the Thalia Theater Hamburg, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, Residenztheater Munich, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Schauspiel Leipzig and Theater Basel.
After »Achilles« (Theater Basel), this is the second time he has worked with Anna Bauer on the music for »Empusion«.
In addition to his work in the theater, Max Kühn is a producer and songwriter and lives in Berlin.
Michael Gmaj
Michael Gmaj was born in Gdańsk, Poland, and grew up in Zurich. After training as a structural draughtsman, he worked as an assistant set designer at the Schauspielhaus Graz, where he collaborated with Henning Mankell and the Teatro Avenida Mozambique, among others. This was followed by his own work as a stage designer in Graz and Zurich.
He completed his dramaturgy studies in Leipzig in 2009. Assistantships took him to the Volksbühne Berlin, as well as to Christoph Schlingensief's »Eine Kirche der Angst«, produced at the Ruhrtriennale. This led to a close collaboration, in particular for his reading tour in 2009, »Mea Culpa« in Vienna, »Unsterblichkeit kann töten« in Zurich, the projects »Geschockte Patienten« and »Operndorf Afrika«. Until the 15/16 season, he was dramaturg at the Staatstheater Karlsruhe, where he worked with directors Mina Salehpour, Malte Lachmann, Csaba Polgár and author Falk Richter, among others. From 2016, he held the same position at Bühnen Bern. In addition to numerous world premieres, staged by Marie Bues, Kieran Joel and Zino Wey, among others, he was in charge of the »Stück Labor« program, which he took over in 2020.
Since the 20/21 season, he has been dramaturg at Theater Basel, where he has repeatedly worked with Antú Romero Nunes, e.g. for »Onkel Wanja«, »Antigone« and now »Empusion«.
Artists
Play Anne Haug
Play Gro Swantje Kohlhof
Play Charlotte Müller
Play Aenne Schwarz
Play Sabine Waibel
Statistician Sophia Jenny
Direction Antú Romero Nunes
Stage, costumes and lighting Matthias Koch
Dramatization Lucien Haug
Music Anna Bauer und Max Kühn
Dramaturgy Michael Gmaj
Dramaturgical accompaniment Michael Höppner
Location
Location Theater Basel, Kleine Bühne
Address Theaterstrasse 7, 4051 Basel
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