Penthesilea - Battle of the Sexes

In the organizer's words:

LIVE FILM THEATER BY TRAFIQUE

**** Nominated for the Cologne Theater Prize 2023 ****

Based on Kleist's Penthesilea, a contemporary drama is created that focuses on gender debates, power structures and possible utopias and dystopias of a battle of the sexes. The battles of the ancient myth serve as a template - the swords and bows are replaced by the sharp blades of identitarian battles.

Penthesilea - Battle of the Sexes is a performative outcry against old and new norms, for the touchable, for doubt and a new open humanism.

"But everything shakes what is unbearable,
Man shakes off his shoulders with a shudder"

CRITICISM:

✍️ "If there were a prize for the theater of the year at the Theaterpreis für die Freie Szene in Cologne, then "Studio Trafique" would probably have won it in 2023. After "Downgrade Promotheus" and "Falling Down", Penthesilea - Battle of the Sexes is the third outstanding production of the year.

In "Studio Trafique", the artistic directors Björn Gabriel and Anna Marienfeld have given Kleist's drama about love and death between the ancient heroic figures a contemporary twist. There has rarely been so much laughter in "Penthesilea". Kleist's drama about love and death between the ancient heroic figures into a contemporary form. There has rarely been so much laughter in "Penthesilea".

(...) In the play, the newly crowned theater prize winner Tomasso Tessitori also sets out in search of alternatives to this toxic finale in the battle of the sexes, seeking his place in a society that has no understanding for those who deviate from the norm. But what can it look like, the new world, in which the old ways no longer apply? Do men have to go, as Penthesilea demands in a pointed suada? Because the man, more machine than being, is responsible for the destruction of this planet over the course of time.

The eradication of patriarchy, however, becomes a monstrously bloody business and demands murderous violence from women, which usually has negative connotations as a male characteristic. Author and director Björn Gabriel avoids the dilemma by satirically exaggerating it. Pathos and horror are repeatedly laughed away here. The war of the sexes comes across as incredibly funny. (...)" (Kölner Stadtanzeiger)

By and with Trafique:
Text & direction: Björn Gabriel
Set & production: Anna Marienfeld
Video & Sound: Alice Bleistein
Dramaturgy: Marita Ritter
Play: Nicolas Martin, Johanna Reinders, Tomasso Tessitori, Anna Marienfeld, Jan Sabo
Choir: Sprechchor Dortmund
Lighting: Jan Wiesbrock
Sound: Wolfgang Proppe
Assistant director: Marie Hahn
Design: Lisa Reutelsterz

🎟 Tickets: https://www.qultor.de/kulturschaffende/studio-trafique

👉 All information: www.studio-trafique.de

The Box Office opens one hour before the performance begins.

Price information:

20€ normal price 13€ reduced 10€ Köln-Ticket