Eugene O'Neill draws impressively complex characters in his play about repression and coping with tragedy in a family. They all talk a lot - but never really to each other. The crucial things remain unspoken or unheard. And therefore unprocessed.
The team around director Rieke Süßkow tells the story from the mother's perspective. The production finds images of how Mary, who suffers from depression, perceives the world. Above all, the team takes the failure of communication, the impossibility of making oneself understood and really talking to each other, as an opportunity for a special formal experiment: they show the play in an instrumental version. In Mary's ears, where people speak, it is not language that is heard, but music.
Each character is assigned an instrument that plays where the characters are supposed to speak. Like Mary, we can only guess and feel what is being said. The text no longer specifies exactly what a character is thinking and saying, and so the production opens itself up to our own discoveries and memories.
The very first image is overwhelming. (...) The evening lasts only an hour and a quarter. But there is no deeper story to tell about loneliness, despair and hopelessness. The production solves something insoluble, it shares the inner perspective of a person trapped within himself. (...) A great, creative evening.
Dates and tickets
All dates and booking links can be found on the website of the Staatstheater.
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