About the production

Start

6:30 p.m.

End

8 p.m.

The principal character is an ape. He does not live behind bars, but instead is a great music hall star. He has been invited to the academy to describe his amazing transformation from ape to human being. But will he reveal the whole truth? His »rise« is the story of both painful defeats and exhilarating victories. In spite of the applause of his tamers, he becomes a tragi-comic hero. An ape as Charlie Chaplin? »Red Peter« (his human name) has learned above all to drink alcohol. We laugh, cry, and are afraid…

This production is a contemporary tribute to Franz Kafka, one of the greatest authors in the German language. He died 100 years ago of tuberculosis at the age of 40 in a Viennese clinic, and did not live to experience his later global fame and influence. His instructions were for all his writings to be destroyed after his death, and it is only due to his friend the writer Max Brodt that his works were preserved: stories of outsiders and searchers, everyday heroes in an absurd and alienated society demanding accommodation, obedience, and »normality«. In Kafka’s world, terror, compassion, and laughter are never far apart.

Director Claus Peymann has made theater history. He was Director of the state theaters in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Bochum, as well as the Burgtheater in Vienna and the Berliner Ensemble (as the successor of Bertolt Brecht and Heiner Müller). His premieres of works by Peter Handke, Thomas Bernhard, Peter Turrini, and Elfriede Jelinek triggered passionate political controversies. The uproar over Bernhard’s »Heldenplatz« is considered the greatest theater scandal in Austria’s postwar history.

In this production we will get to know a very young actor from Vienna: Nico Dorigatti. In addition to his studies at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, he is also a trained stunt man – a very good qualification to play an ape? Dorigatti’s debut performance was in Vienna’s Theater in der Josefstadt as Lucky in Claus Peymann’s production of »Waiting for Godot«. Audiences celebrated him as the discovery of the year – and as an excellent comedian.

An ape as a theater star? The Lausitz Festival makes it possible. This tragicomic story will unfold in the Lichtsaal of the former Telux glass factory in Weißwasser.

Cancelled: »A Report for an Academy« on 8, 10, 11 and 12 Sept.

Schedule change: »The Trial« instead of »A Report for an Academy« on 8.9.

The planned production of »A Report for an Academy« has unfortunately been cancelled due to the director's health.

The events on 10, 11 and 12 September have been cancelled without replacement.

Instead, Kafka's »The Trial« with Philipp Hochmair will be performed on 8 September at the TELUX site in Weißwasser.

We wish Mr Peymann a speedy recovery.

Tickets already purchased for »A Report for an Academy«:

Tickets already purchased for the performance of »A Report for an Academy« on 8 September remain valid for the performance of »The Trial«. Alternatively, tickets can be refunded at the respective advance booking office.

Tickets purchased for the subsequent performances of »A Report for an Academy« on 10, 11 and 12 September will be refunded at the respective advance booking office.

Our ticket service is available from Monday to Friday between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. on +49 3581 42 848 30 or by e-mail at tickets@lausitz-festival.eu.

Director

Claus Peymann

Claus Peymann, geb. 1937 in Bremen; Regisseur und Theaterleiter. Beginn: Studiobühne an der Universität Hamburg; Gastregisseur an verschiedenen Theatern in Deutschland, Österreich und in der Schweiz.

Oberspielleiter am TAT Frankfurt / übernimmt mit anderen Theatermachern die Berliner Schaubühne/ Schauspieldirektor am Staatstheater Stuttgart / »Generalintendant“« am Schauspielhaus Bochum / Burgtheaterdirektor in Wien / und – als Nachfolger Heiner Müllers – Direktor des BE (Berliner Ensemble). Seit 2017, nach 18 Jahren BE, Gastspiele mit Lesungen von Thomas Bernhard im In-und Ausland / Gastinszenierungen in Stuttgart, Ingolstadt, München – und immer wieder am Theater in der Josefstadt in Wien. Seine Inszenierung von Beckets »Warten auf Godot« ist noch immer im Repertoire des Theaters in der Josefstadt zu sehen – mit Nico Dorigatti als »Lucky«. Im Münchener Residenztheater spielt Manfred Zapatka seit Dezember 2023 Thomas Bernhards »Minetti«. Wohnsitz von Claus Peyman: Berlin-Köpenick.

Nico Dorigatti

Nico Dorigatti wurde 2001 in Niederösterreich geboren, wo er seine Schulausbildung erhielt und 2019 seine Matura an einem humanistischen Gymnasium in Wiener Neustadt absolvierte. 2020 – 2024 studierte er Schauspiel an der Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien, dem Max Reinhardt Seminar. Nico Dorigatti ist als freier Schauspieler, Regisseur, Autor und Musiker tätig.