Krieg und Frieden

In the organizer's words:

Play based on the novel by Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy
in an adaptation by Bert Zander

With War and Peace, Tolstoy created a monumental classic of novel literature. It portrays a time of European imperialism that seems more familiar to us than we had hoped. On more than 2000 pages, Tolstoy not only describes historical events in a unique way, but also puts forward the thesis that history is not a causal chain, but fateful: as individuals, we are part of it, conflicts are reflected and overlap in both the private and the political sphere. But are we really so detached and powerless in the face of events?
Bert Zander examines Tolstoy's portrait of society against the backdrop of the historical events of the Napoleonic Wars against Russia at the beginning of the 19th century - and investigates how the past is connected to the present. The fates of the characters are closely linked to the war: whether as soldiers and army personnel, women in love with officers and left behind, caring mothers and fathers or loners seeking freedom. Contrary to what the title might suggest, it is not war heroes who are at the center of the novel, but ordinary people: Political power may lie with the heroes, but social power rests on the shoulders of the many individuals.

With his unique aesthetics, which the Kassel audience has already experienced in FAUSTGretchen, Bert Zander creates a hybrid world of video and drama in which characters, world events and the choir of the unheard come together. Between our documentary view of history and the present, Zander raises the question of where war and peace lie today in the face of multiple crises.

Bert Zander is a director and video artist. His works at the interface of theater and video art have so far been shown, among others
at the Volksbühne Berlin, the Thalia Theater Hamburg and the Burgtheater Vienna. His Oberhausen production of Schuld und Sühne was invited to the NRW Theatertreffen in 2019, and in 2020 he realized the theater series Die Pest for 3sat/ZDF. He can still be seen in FAUSTGretchen at the TiF - Theater im Fridericianum.