The Marriage of Maria Braun at the Schauspielhaus Bochum
From September 23, 2012 in the Kammerspiele theater
The staging of The Marriage of Maria Braun in Bochum represents yet another highpoint in this year of events commemorating the life and work of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The script for the stage play was written by Peter Märthesheimer und Pea Fröhlich based on a draft by RWF and was performed for the first time at the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf in 2003. 2007 saw a highly praised production by Thomas Ostermeier, which was invited to the Berlin Theater Festival the following year.
This production will open the 2012/23 season and is directed by Jan Neumann with Bettina Engelhardt in the title role she first performed in the 2003 premiere. The cast also includes Raiko Küster as Hermann Braun and Katharina Linder in the role of the mother.
From the program:
Amidst a bombing raid in 1943, Maria Braun marries Hermann only to see him return to the front the next day. Taking her destiny into her own hands in the barter economy of the post-war years, Maria becomes a prosperous and successful woman, all the while awaiting Hermann’s return to fulfill the promise of their marriage. But what remains once the economic miracle has been completed?
“Rainer Werner Fassbinder manages to distill the early history of West Germany and its foundational myth in the character of one woman. Maria Braun is not only, as she puts it, ‘the Mata Hari of the economic miracle,’ she is the economic miracle itself.”
The production also represents a reminiscence of Fassbinder’s time at the Schauspielhaus Bochum at the beginning of the Peter Zadek era in 1972/73.
More information:
Tel.: 0234-33 33 55 55 Schauspielhaus Bochum Ticket reservations
Premiere of The Marriage of Maria Braun on September 23, 7:00 p.m., in the Kammerspiele theater
Further performances:
- Sept 30, 2012, 7:00 p.m., Kammerspiele
- Oct 14, 2012, 5:00 p.m., Kammerspiele
- Oct 27, 2012, 7:30 p.m., Kammerspiele
- Oct 31, 2012, 6:45 p.m., introduction in the Theater Unten
- Oct 10, 2012, 7:30 Uhr, Kammerspiele
Photo right and left: Bettina Engelhardt als Maria Braun © 2012 Schauspielhaus Bochum, Photographer Diana Küster