German Theater Hamburg | “Foreign Sun”: game of violence

Photo: Monika Rittershaus An astonishing interest in the stories of the gods of the ancient world still accompanies people today through the godless present. The difficult to understand relationship between gods and demigods, people and powers from ancient Greece seems to be closer to many people today than the distant Germanic mythical worlds or even the despised Bible stories.

This is also evidenced by the enormous success of a rather unwieldy or unsuccessful cinema production such as “The Odyssey” by Christopher Nolan. People obviously want to hear the old stories anew, even if they are dramaturgically failed ventures.

Karin Beier wants to achieve what appeared to be both gimmicky and crude on the big screen this year, but on the theater stage. At the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, which Beier is directing for the 14th year, 9,000 kilometers away from the overrated Hollywood, she uses theater resources to tell of Iason and his rise, of Medea and her countless humiliations, of the Golden Fleece and its promises.

Roland Schimmelpfennig once again provided the text versions. Again? Already in autumn 2023, the duo Beier/Schimmelpfennig provided the premiere of five pieces from the ancient cosmos. The title “Anthropolis” was the monumental project with an excellent cast, which then became an audience and festival favorite. The Theban legends about Dionysus, Laios and Jocasta, about Antigone and Oedipus were examined for their modern content. And lo and behold - behind the ancient veil lie the depths of civilization, yesterday and today.

“Foreign Sun” is the name of the new, no less ambitious antique cycle from Hamburg, this time consisting of four full-length productions. Anyone who simply wants to repeat a success once achieved using similar means should not fear failure. Haven't you set your expectations so high that disappointments are bound to follow? The risk existed. But that's not how it happened. The Schauspielhaus has a new hit.

“You are nothing / but rowers, / but just go / and have a good trip,” shouts Jason to his people. Photo: Monika Rittershaus Hamburg invited people to the marathon. This is what the Schauspielhaus calls the weekends on which all parts of “Strange Sun” (previously performed) can be seen. Three spectacles within two days. Is there a threat of eventization of the theater here? In a less culturally critical way, one could say: This is based on ancient traditions. The theater takes center stage for the purpose of self-understanding - and with it the community. The performing arts as a day-filling activity.

The first part of the spectacle is made up of three sections: “Prologue/Interlude/The Argonauts” is its brittle name. The author Roland Schimmelpfennig is the narrator among contemporary German-speaking playwrights. While other playwrights have perfected theorizing for the stage or use documentary means to explain the world, he prefers to tell stories. For him, every character is always a narrator, every scene moves between a play and an experience report.

So Schimmelpfennig tells us what happened with the Golden Fleece: The sea god Poseidon turns the star artist Theophane into a sheep and himself into a ram. From their abuse comes a golden ram whose fur is shrouded in legend.

The golden ram returns. But not until King Athamos of Iolkos betrays his wife Nephele, the goddess of the mist, and their two children. He falls in love with Ion and lives with her. When the two children are to be sacrificed to restore justice in the land, they are first saved by the golden ram that flies to Colchis. All of this takes place somewhere between the deepest past and today, between the ancient empire and the port of Hamburg, not crudely updated, but also not stuck in dusty yesterday.

Crisis reigns in Iolkos. The factories work constantly. But what should happen next? Then a man in a red dress appears, a circlet holding his long blonde hair back, he smiles from the stage. Is this what a hero looks like? Devid Striesow portrays this scrupulous Iason in such a way that one can no more believe in heroes in the mythical past than in the present.

But before we set off across the Black Sea to bring the Golden Fleece back to Greece and introduce ourselves with our own claims to power, we learn the story of Jason. Mirco Kreibich plays an unbridledly annoying Cheiron on stage, a centaur, half human, half horse, the wisest being on earth. The royal child Jason is left to him. In his cave he becomes his teacher. But this wise man abuses his protégé, resists enlightenment and indulges in alcohol. Only by overpowering his teacher can Iason free himself from him.

And now this man wants to lead the Argonauts on their way to the strange Colchis. It is, this much becomes clear, a campaign of conquest. Beier stages the crossing as a grotesque. It's a crazy thing. Almost two dozen rowers lead across the sea in strict and impressive choreography. A brilliant four-hour start, which is only a part of the whole cosmos, which is conjured onto the stage here as if with a light hand.

The next day the marathon continues with “Medea in Colchis”. As if in family therapy, four are sitting on the stage ramp: Iason (Devid Striesow), who has arrived uninvited, Aietes, the king of Colchis (Sebastian Blomberg armed with a machine gun), and his children Absyrtos (Kristof Van Boven) and Medea (Lina Beckmann).

The Stranger - that's just a fantasy between exotic treasures and inhuman barbarism. Photo: Monika Rittershaus What does the Greek want here? Aietes eyes Iason suspiciously. He's actually here for a reason. But what is he about? Is it really the Golden Fleece? Or is the raid to the East just a means to an end? The triumph over the “barbarians” should become a guarantee of success at home. The brutality of the ruler of Colchis, which Blomberg exploits extremely skillfully, does not change the infamy of Iason's actions. There are no good guys in this power game.

To get what he wants, he depends on Medea. Together they break up a toxic family structure: the violent father is outwitted, her brother Absyrtos, whom Van Boven plays as an emotionally strung out, highly sensitive boy who adores Medea beyond the natural limits of sibling love, is sacrificed along with his fleece to Greece.

But Medea also only serves as a tool. Beier creates a panorama of the psychological violence with which all the characters affect each other. It is a game that develops an oppressive pull.

Two hours of ancient tragedy are followed by a two-hour break and another hour and a half of ancient tragedy: “Medea in Corinth”. How should we tell this story today? The story of Medea, the eternal stranger, used by her husband and now replaced by an even more useful woman. Is she a hysteric? A mother without feelings? Or is it a symbol of resistance? The woman who rebels with everything she has left?

Lina Beckmann plays her with tremendous emotional and dramatic variety. The men on stage treat them with astonishing ignorance of their situation: This applies to the man who casts them out, as well as to King Creon, who wants to drive them out of the city, and to King Aegeus, who, blind to their situation, can only help out of self-interest.

Medea fights against the shame she has suffered with all the means at her disposal. Photo: Monika Rittershaus Based on Franz Grillparzer's last part of his drama trilogy "The Golden Fleece", "Medea", Schimmelpfennig tried to create an adaptation that finds a modern language and prevents a reduction to the purely psychological. A large female choir, which screams, hits and stamps from the hall, gives anger and horror something immediate.

It doesn't help: Medea kills her adversaries and, extremely sensitively staged, sacrifices her two children. Now it's just the two of them: Medea and Jason. An unconditional fight for power on the one hand, and for survival on the other - and no winners anywhere.

Karin Beier and Roland Schimmelpfennig are not satisfied with canon maintenance. The ancient materials still concern us today because they point beyond themselves. At the Deutsches Schauspielhaus we talk about the imperial madness of conquest and the forced oppression of others on the way to the top. A Hellenic “House of Cards” opens your eyes to the same old power games played by those who strive for dominance.

But that is just a stage victory in the big “marathon”. The cycle will not come to an end until February next year. Then the final part premieres with “Medea in Athens,” which shows us Medea, once again abused out of lust for power, at the side of King Aegeus. If you can't wait that long, we recommend the book that brings together all the dramas, which was published just in time for the opening of the season.

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