Amphitryon

Kleist's "Amphitryon", a modern comedy about identity, mistaken identity and tragicomic wit.

"Is this hand mine? This breast here mine? Is this image mine that the mirror shines?"
What makes us who we are? Who can we trust if not ourselves? And what if this basic trust is suddenly called into question?

Never before has identity been as funny as in Heinrich von Kleist's comedy Amphitryon. Modestly described by himself as a comedy based on Molière, Kleist's play, which was published in 1807, transfers the theme of mistaken identity, already dealt with by Plautus and Molière, into the modern age: the general Amphitryon, who returns from war to find that Jupiter has taken on his form to become the lover of his wife Alcmene, becomes the prototype of the man who is unsure of himself through Kleist.

Kleist's great theatrical coup is that he plays out the resulting sensitivities, mistakes and misadventures in a comedic setting. Amphitryon thus lends itself to a close look at the current questions of identity: Where are we "real" and where are we made up of attributions and observations? Is identity artificially reproducible - or even artistic?

Director: Nelly Eichhorn

With: Angelo Serdar-Basar, Andrea Rudolph, Stefan Vitelariu