DAS SCHLOSS

In the organizer's words:

THE CASTLE

based on the novel of the same name by Franz Kafka

adapted for the stage by Karin Henkel and Rita Thiele

One evening, a stranger named K. enters a village inn. He is told that no one is allowed to stay there without the permission of the village authorities. K. then identifies himself as a surveyor appointed by the castle and is informed three days later that no surveyor is needed, and that it is not even certain whether one has ever been requested. For unexplained reasons and against his wishes, K. was instead appointed as a school servant, but in a letter from the castle he was told that they were quite satisfied with his work as surveyor. As dubious as the castle's administrative apparatus is and as non-transparent and arbitrary as the officials' decisions seem, the veracity of K.'s incoherent statements must also be doubted. In order to clarify the legitimacy of his presence and obligations, K. finally tries to make an appearance at the castle himself, but all his attempts to reach the castle fail. The greater his efforts, the more distant and inaccessible the castle seems. It also remains unclear what it is all about - the only certainty is that K. will never reach his destination. False trails are constantly being laid, contradictory information is given, vague assumptions are made, information is called into question, because the essence of the "castle" is its ambiguity. Or as the film sociologist Siegfried Kracauer, a contemporary of Kafka, put it: "The Castle" is an expression of "man's isolation from the truth".

2024 marks the hundredth anniversary of Franz Kafka's death. To mark the occasion, Karin Henkel, one of the most renowned directors in the German-speaking world, is staging Kafka's 1926 posthumously published novel fragment, this mysterious key work of literary modernism. Her poetic, highly topical feminist interpretation of "Medea" based on Euripides is still on the program of the Residenztheater.

ARTISTIC DIRECTION

Production Karin Henkel
Stage Thilo Reuther
Costumes Katrin Wolfermann
Composition and sound design Arvild J. Baud
Lighting Markus Schadel
Choreography Brandon Lagaert
Dramaturgy Constanze Kargl

Price information:

from 10€ for students