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 deed threatens to come to light, he is treacherously murdered. His wife, Gunther's sister, then wipes out the entire family in an act of vengeance. Blood for blood, and what once was law must remain so, even if it costs the whole world. Yet at the heart of the narrative stand two women whose fates are inextricably intertwined: Kriemhild, who loves Siegfried, and Brunhild, whom he conquered in battle and in bed. Their story speaks of violence and subjugation - and of a deep silence that echoes through ages and generations.

With his dramatization of the Nibelungenlied, Hebbel achieved a psychological approach to the mythic figures that laid the groundwork for their later nationalist appropriation. Director Alice Buddeberg uses the text as material for a theatrical inquiry that explores 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.