Prinz Friedrich von Homburg

On the eve of the Battle of Fehrbellin (1675): The Prince of Homburg, equestrian general to the Elector of Brandenburg, is observed by court society as he weaves a laurel wreath in his sleep. Dreaming, he approaches Natalie, the Elector's niece, and confesses his love for her. When he awakens, he finds her glove in his hands. Confused by the dream experience, he misses the elector's instructions on the order of battle and enters the fray too early, against all orders. Although he wins the battle, the Elector sentences him to death. Homburg pleads for his life. The Elector is willing to pardon him if Homburg thinks "an injustice has been done to him" ...
Heinrich von Kleist's last drama, written in 1810/11 only a few months before his suicide, draws its conflict potential from the opposites that derive from Homburg's refusal to obey orders: individual freedom and reason of state, emotion and (military) duty of obedience. Hero or outsider? Dreamer or traumatized man? Homburg is a man torn apart by contradictions, who does not know how to reconcile his inner conception of the world with reality. Is it impossible, as Ingeborg Bachmann put it, "to be an officer and a human being at the same time"?
Jette Steckel, born in Berlin in 1982, is in-house director at the Thalia Theater Hamburg. She has directed at Schauspiel Köln, Burgtheater Wien, various opera houses and regularly at Deutsches Theater Berlin. For her production of "Nachtblind" by Darja Stocker, she was voted Young Director of the Year 2007 by the magazine Theater heute. "Gerettet" by Edward Bond was awarded the Eysoldt Prize for young directors in 2008, and "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare won the DER FAUST theater prize in 2015. In 2017, she won the Rolf Mares Prize with "Das achte Leben (Für Brilka)" by Nino Haratischwili, and again the FAUST with "Das mangelnde Licht" in 2023. "Prinz Friedrich von Homburg" is her first production at the Schaubühne.