Cinema | 70 Years of Berliner Festspiele
Dämonen (The Devils)
Fyodor Dostoevsky, directed by Frank Castorf
Colour
Theatertreffen 2000
Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz / Wiener Festwochen
Recorded performance 11.3.2000
Film, 232'17", colour, sound. Film still © Volksbühne Berlin | Bert Neumann Association
Anyone living in the depths of the abyss has the worst behind them. Dostoyevsky’s "The Devils" is set during the transition from religious faith to materialist ideology, yet the work not only anticipates the approaching death of God, but also the failure of socialism.
Created in the 1860s, Fjodor Dostojewsky‘s novel not only opens up a philosophical panorama of the range of human striving for transcendence, it also establishes such fateful bonds between striving individuals that only the full terror of the constitutional state can put a stop to its widespread destruction. Beauty and terror mate before the onset of darkness. In a last house just before the Russia’s western border, somewhere in between Paris, Texas, Cindy Sherman, Dogma 95 and Duma 2000. Frank Castorf directs in stage and costume designs by Bert Neumann. Appearing on stage are Henry Hübchen, Milan Peschel, Silvia Rieger, Martin Wuttke, Kathrin Angerer, Bernhard Schütz, Sophie Rois, Hendrik Arnst and others.
Cast
Directed by Frank Castorf
Stage and Costume Design Bert Neumann
Dramaturgy Matthias Pees
Musical Directors Sir Henry, Thomas Krinzinger
Recording Erhard Ertel
With: Kathrin Angerer, Hendrik Arnst, Henry Hübchen, Sebastian König, Astrid Meyerfeldt, Milan Peschel, Silvia Rieger, Sophie Rois, Bernhard Schütz, Sir Henry, Jeanette Spassova, Joachim Tomaschewsky, Ulrich Voß and Martin Wuttke
© Volksbühne Berlin | Bert Neumann Association