04/01/08 The Marriage of Maria Braun invited to the Berlin Theatre Festival
Performances on 4 and 5 May, 2008 at the Schaubühne, Lehniner Platz
Almost exactly thirty years after its Cannes premiere, a stage production of Fassbinder’s most successful film, THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN is to be performed during the Berlin Theatre Festival. Thomas Ostermeier, Artistic Director of the famous Schaubühne theatre on Lehniner Platz in Berlin, will direct a specially adapted stage version of the film that was to become the first part of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s trilogy on the Federal Republic of Germany. In his preface to the published version of the screenplay based on Fassbinder’s original idea, author Peter Märthesheimer, who co-wrote the script with Pea Fröhlich, remarks: “It seems to me today that, when I wrote The Marriage of Maria Braun, New German Cinema was experiencing what was perhaps its heyday – everything was so unpretentious and unselfconscious at the time.”
The current stage version received its premiere last year on 6 June at the Kammerspiele in Munich. Reviewers were unanimous in their praise, particularly of the performances and the directing. After his versions of the Ibsen plays Nora (2003) and Hedda Gabler (2006), the Fassbinder production marks Ostermeier’s third outing as a director at Berlin’s theatre festival. Once again he has chosen to portray a refreshingly strong female character – albeit one that is a little more contemporary this time. In his ‘face-paced production’, Ostermeier has followed Fassbinder’s lead in his telling depiction of the protagonist’s role in German society during the era known as the ‘economic miracle.’
After the second performance there will be a podium discussion, led by Tobi Müller.
German broadcaster ZDF’s channel Theaterkanal will record the performance, which television viewers can see on 24 May, 2008 at 8.15 p.m. on 3Sat.
Performances: Sunday, 4 May / 6 p.m. and Monday, 5 May / 7.30 p.m.
