Philosophisches Café der ANStifter Heinrich von Kleists „Penthesilea“

Barbara Stoll performs Kleist's "Penthesilea" as an impressive monologue in the Lapidarium's sculpture garden - accompanied by Jerry Willingham's unique soundscape. A dramatic evening between love, madness and the power of antiquity.

Philosophisches Café der ANStifter
Heinrich von Kleist's "Penthesilea"
Performed by Barbara Stoll, with music by Jerry Willingham

"Consecrated to tender hearts full of feeling! With dogs she tears to pieces,
whom she loves, and eats him up, skin and hair."

Heinrich von Kleist was an outsider in the literary life of his time; he stood outside the camps of Romanticism and Weimar Classicism. His tragedy "Penthesilea" in particular was considered unperformable.
Barbara Stoll plays and recites Kleist's strongest, most fascinating drama about the obsessively amorous Amazon queen Penthesilea as a monologue - in the Lapidarium's beautiful sculpture garden. She slips into various roles, starting out as Odysseus, becoming Achilles, then Penthesilea, the priestess or even Meroe at the end. The changes are minimal, intentional, yet all the voices are united in that of Kleist.
It is accompanied musically by Jerry Willingham. His spatial sound concept (ceramic objects, flutes, khaen, etc.) was created especially for Barbara Stoll's adaptation of "Penthesilea".