The Nibelungs

A story like a blockbuster: the radiant hero Siegfried has subdued the mighty Queen Brunhild for King Gunther to secure his rule. When the matter threatens to come to light, he is treacherously murdered - whereupon his wife, Gunther's sister, in an act of vengeance wipes out the entire family. Blood flows upon blood, and what is once right must remain so, even if it costs the whole world.

At the true center stand two women whose fates are inextricably intertwined: Kriemhild, who loves Siegfried, and Brunhild, who is subdued by him in battle and in bed. Their story testifies to violence and subjugation - and to a deep silence about it that echoes through times and generations.

In his dramatization of the Nibelungenlied, Hebbel achieved a psychological approach to the mythical figures that prepared the ground for their later nationalist appropriation. Director Alice Buddeberg uses the text as material for a theatrical search for the untold: Why do we keep invoking this myth? What does it tell us about guilt and silence? She takes the perspective of the female characters - and with them the continuum of male violence that extends from the fascist reception as a "German national epic" to the present day.

Direction: Alice Buddeberg
Set design: Cora Saller
Costumes: Philipp Basener
Music: Mirjam Beierle