DU, ALICE

In the organizer's words:

A CALL

by Simone Scharbert

In a version by Johanna Rummeny and Antonia Ortmanns

Alice James: sister of great intellectuals, strange, ill. Diagnosis: "hysteria". Treatment: strict bed rest. This is how Alice is described during her lifetime, because the 19th century is not yet over, and time offers hardly any other categories to understand this headstrong woman.
Alice James: author? Pioneer of women's education? Icon of early feminism? In other circumstances, these descriptions might well have prevailed. For within the narrow framework that remains to her, Alice explores her own possibilities for action. She resists the expectations that society and her family place on her and her womanhood. And writes herself into the story in the form of letters and diaries, which provide insights into her thinking and open up our view of an amazing person.

The young director Antonia Ortmanns brings Simone Scharbert's poetic appeal to Alice James to the stage in an intimate setting and, together with her team, embarks on a search for female resistance and solidarity. An attempt to come closer to a past life and the rebellion against the structures of the past and present.

With voices of Yuri Englert and family as well as Ines Marie Westernströer.

Further information here.

Note

In DU, ALICE, the themes of mental and physical illness, death, suicide and the loss of loved ones are addressed. These topics are dealt with linguistically, but are not depicted physically or visually.