Based on Aeschylus, in a new adaptation by Robert Icke Translated into German by Ulrike Syha
“There is no single story—no single thread of truth that runs from beginning to end.” Three murders, a curse—and the question of what justice means today: With Robert Icke’s adaptation of “The Oresteia,” Theater Vorpommern brings an ancient story to the stage that feels unnervingly relevant today. The focus is less on the external events than on the psychological intensity of a destructive web of relationships, particularly between mother and son. The starting point seems almost familiar:
The family centered around the warlord Agamemnon and his wife Clytemnestra shares a moment of apparent normality—yet beneath the surface, an inevitable conflict is already simmering between political responsibility, military calculation, and personal bonds. Agamemnon’s decision to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigenia, for the sake of the state unleashes a spiral of revenge that will irreversibly destroy the family’s order. Years later, when Agamemnon returns home as a war hero, he is brutally murdered by Clytemnestra, who in turn invites her son’s vengeance.
Robert Icke transposes the more than 2,500-year-old original into a present marked by new media and a culture of public judgment. Set against the backdrop of a courtroom trial, the production reexamines the fundamental questions of our civilization: What distinguishes
revenge from justice? Where does society begin—and what causes it to fall apart?
A politically charged, gripping family drama.
