"Agnes Bernauer" by Franz Xaver Kroetz was premiered in 1977 in the GDR.
44 years later the play can now be seen at the Munich Residenztheater.
Our premiere review:
On the hub of life, all people are equal.
Bad.
“This is the way the world goes,” says entrepreneur's wife Herma Werdenfels to Agnes' daughter-in-law and says: Put up with it, little girl.
But that's exactly what the young woman no longer wants: As a small, resigned cog in society (“Where I can do nothing”), this Agnes Bernauer initially tries to get pregnant: “Then I'll marry a rich man.”
"Agnes Bernauer" was premiered in 1977
His name is Albrecht Werdenfels, he is an unavailable music student and the son of Ernst, who came to the castle and coal with rosaries of all things.
Agnes initially likes the role of the decorated doll at Filius's side.
Then she discovers, firstly, how the company patriarch exploits his workers, and secondly, her social conscience.
Instead of numbing herself with luxury and joining in, she walks into an uncertain, but also unwritten, future with her husband and unborn baby.
Kroetz was based on the historical Agnes Bernauer
Franz Xaver Kroetz tells about it in his drama "Agnes Bernauer", for which he brought the historical figure from the 15th century to the young post-war FRG. The Bernauerin, daughter of a bathers from Augsburg, was once Bavaria's Duke Albrecht III. very, very close. His father, Duke Ernst, was so against the grain and the succession that he had the young woman drowned in the Danube near Straubing in 1435. Kroetz finds another solution, believes in the changeability of the individual, perhaps even in that of the circumstances. His Agnes is the good person from Straubing, but greets not only Brecht in the text, but also Horváth and Fleißer.
In May 1977 the "bourgeois drama" was premiered in the GDR, in Leipzig;
four months later the first performance in the Federal Republic was in Wuppertal.
After that, the piece was no longer played.
After 44 years, in-house director Nora Schlocker has now unearthed it for the Bavarian State Theater;
on Thursday, November 18th, the premiere of their 100-minute evening was in the Cuvilliéstheater.
+
"Agnes Bernauer": Christoph Franken convinces as Ernst Werdenfels.
© Sandra Then / Bavarian State Theater
Marie Roth has built a complex paneled with dark veneer on the revolving stage, reminiscent of oversized confessionals.
On the front of the sacred structure, which offers a lot of leeway, lines of the "Ave Maria" are engraved all around.
Jana Findeklee and Joki Tewes put the ensemble in costumes that are reminiscent of seventies fashion or traditional costume.
(Jazz) composer Monika Roscher wrote a similarly wild, tasty mix for the four fabulous musicians.
"Agnes Bernauer" was created during Kroetz 'DKP phase
A large number of the actors and actresses screwed up the wonderful Bavarian character of Kroetz's characters. But these are taken seriously - even in some platitudes. This is how Schlocker's staging develops a good rhythm of its own. The director also takes care not to update the (time) piece. Of course, calculations are no longer made in marks and production processes are also different. But little has changed in the basic problem that the text describes, namely that wealth is (all too often) amassed at the expense of others (people, countries, creation). “Agnes Bernauer” exemplifies this. Yes, Kroetz wrote his drama during the phase of his DKP euphoria, when he was convinced that people can change for the better. So what? One will still be allowed to dream.
Read our review of the premiere of “Graf Öderland” at the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel here.
