DIE FLIEGEN

In the organizer's words:

THE FLIES

by Jean-Paul Sartre with a prologue and epilogue by Thomas Köck

newly translated from the French by Magnus Chrapkowski

After fifteen years in exile, Orest returns unrecognized to his hometown of Argos - the city where his father Agamemnon was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisth after the victory over Troy. However, his spontaneous return is not motivated by a desire for revenge, but by the rumor of a mysterious plague of flies. When his sister Elektra persuades him to stay, he gradually realizes that Clytemnestra and Aegisth have not only cruelly oppressed the people, but have also made him complicit in Agamemnon's murder. Only then does Orest make the decision to act.

Unlike in Aeschylus' famous "Oresteia", in which a curse determines the fate of those involved, in Sartre's play Orest is no longer the plaything and tool of the gods - he acts of his own free will. In his radical interpretation of the ancient myth, the French philosopher, playwright and main representative of existentialism Jean-Paul Sartre shows how oppression can be overcome through resistance and the will to freedom. In the end, no jury or god will acquit Orest. He takes the guilt upon himself and will - according to Sartre - "continue on his way, without justification, without excuse, without help, alone".

In-house director Elsa-Sophie Jach brings Sartre's tragedy to the stage in a newly commissioned translation at the Cuvilliéstheater.

"Once a year, a state of emergency reigns in Argos. A society dances on the edge of the abyss of its guilt. On this day, Orest returns to the city where his sister Elektra is rebelling: against their mother, the murder of their father, the bizarre frenzy of death, ghost-purges. The two find and lose themselves in their questions: do the dead haunt the living? Is this never-ending celebration of remorse paralyzing or just? Where does freedom end? Like drones, the flies hover over their heads, over the city of Argos, scanning and harassing its inhabitants - Sartre's flies." Elsa-Sophie Jach

Sartre's "The Flies" is the prelude to a reinterpretation of the more than two-thousand-year-old myth of the "Oresteia", which will be continued with Ulrich Rasche's production of Aeschylus' "Agamemnon" and Robert Borgmann's music-theatrical installation "Athena".

Artistic Director

Production Elsa-Sophie Jach
Composition and musical direction Max Kühn
Stage Aleksandra Pavlovic
Costumes Sibylle Wallum
Lighting Barbara Westernach
Dramaturgy Michael Billenkamp

Price information:

from 10 € for students