Thespis Festival

Thespis would like to thank you all with gratitude and love! We part ways for now, but the Thespis cart path is under construction.
Thank you Tobias Biancone
Director of
International Theater Institute ITI
and Tomasz Miłkowski
Honorary Vice-President of the IATC/AICT for the beautiful words! (Text below)


Dear Jolanta, dear Thespis friends,

I still have fond memories of the last Thespis festival I attended in Kiel - but it was also a bit of a cold season. So I'm all the more sad that I won't be able to be with you all in 2024, in May, when it's warm.

And even more so because you have put together a great program with people whose work I know well and appreciate, but also with people whose work I don't know but would like to see.

And even more so because, Jolanta, I have never seen you in a play before and because the theme of your performance promises a great evening.

The last Thespis Festival? It's like a nightmare for me, dear Jolanta. But I understand you.

And yet I hope that someone will be found to continue the festival under this or another name. Because otherwise, one of the best festivals in the worldwide monodrama festival landscape will be missing, your festival, dear Jolanta.

I wish you and all participants a great festival.

With warmest regards to all

Tobias Biancone
Director of
International Theater Institute ITI

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honor to inform you on behalf of the Polish section of IATC that Mrs. Jolanta Sutowicz has been awarded the honorary Edwarda Csató’ Certificate.
The patron of the award is one of the most outstanding Polish critics of the 20th century and his main idea is expressed in the words: Theater is an actor. It fits like a glove what our laureate has been doing for a quarter of a century. She created an important new space for creative confrontation of the art of acting. And for that we thank her today.
It was suggested a moment ago that Jolanta Sutowicz's singing is not good. I do not agree. These 25 years of the Thespis festival are her wonderful song in praise of acting. And that's without a single false tone.
My heartiest congratulations.
[Please accept this diploma and theater graphics by Janusz Golik]
Tomasz Miłkowski
Honorary Vice-President of the IATC/AICT

https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/schleswig-holstein-magazin/letztes-kieler-theaterfestival-fuer-ein-personen-stuecke/ndr/Y3JpZDovL25kci5kZS85MWU4ZTg1YS0wOTc0LTQzZWEtOWUzYy05YWY4M2Y1OTU0ZWI

Schleswig-Holstein Magazin: Letztes Kieler Theaterfestival für Ein-Personen-Stücke Bei 'Thespis' stehen bis zum 18. Mai Monodramen auf dem Programm. Nach 25 Jahren ist mit diesem Festival allerdings Schluss.

THE 14th/15th INTERNATIONAL MONODRAMA FESTIVAL THESPIS

KIEL, May 11-18, 2024

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The unique and internationally renowned monodrama (one-person play) festival THESPIS will take place for the last time from May 11 - 18, 2024. After 25 years, it is time to say goodbye - with a double edition of the festival.

This year’s festival productions (including numerous prize winners from international theater competitions) are largely German premieres; sometimes even world premieres.

We would be happy to welcome you again this year. With the help of numerous public and private supporters, we are once again able to make the city of Kiel the center of monodrama world for a whole week. Artists from eight countries will present the status quo of this small yet great form of theater.

“Big” names like Anne, Heinz and David Bennent, Josef Bierbichler, Philipp Hochmair, Karen Köhler, and this year (for the second time) Angela Winkler have made the smallest of all theater forms interesting for theater-goers in Kiel. For numerous artists, THESPIS became a springboard for international stage career - thanks to its worldwide festival network.

In 2024, in a time of global crises and uncertainty, THESPIS still stands for a theater of artistic diversity and highly relevant topics, but also for retrospection and soul-searching. Many of the 15 invited pieces tell about life on and for the stage - being at times seriously funny, or amusingly serious.

There is no doubt about it: monodrama is alive, worldwide and in all possible forms.

We look forward to your interest and your visit.

Sincerely,

JOLANTA SUTOWICZ JENS RASCHKE

Festival Director Festival Dramaturg

Organizer: Maecenas e.V., in collaboration with the Theater Kiel and the International Theatre Institute

Supported by:

- The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media

- The Ministry of

- The state capital Kiel

In cooperation with and with the support of:

Theater Kiel | International Theatre Institute (ITI) Germany | Die Pumpe e.V. | Kieler Nachrichten | Literaturhaus Schleswig-Holstein | KulturForum in der Stadtgalerie

For more information, please visit:

THESPIS Copyright © 2024 · All Rights Reserved · THESPIS Internationales Monodrama Festival | c/o Jolanta Sutowicz | Osloring 41 | 24109 Kiel | Tel.: +49 157 57801106 | [email protected]

the double bass

Thursday, May 16 | 6 p.m. | Schauspielhaus (Studio)
https://www.thespis.de/en/the-double-bass/
Language: Polish, with english subtitles
Running time: approx. 60 min.

by PATRICK SÜSKIND
with KRZYSZTOF ROGACEWICZ

THE DOUBLE BASS is probably the most successful German-language monodrama of all time: Patrick Süskind’s play premiered in 1981 and has remained to this day an integral part of international theater schedules.

A 35-year-old introverted and visibly bitter double bass player from the opera orchestra gives insights into his life, his love for music and his instrument, and speaks about love in general. Initial eulogies for his instrument become increasingly fragile and end in a surprising turn of events…

Krzysztof Rogacewicz – actor, director and producer – is a graduate of the State Theater School in Wroclaw and co-founder of the MASKA Theater in Jelenia Góra. With THE DOUBLE BASS, he has taken part in numerous international monodrama festivals and won several prizes.

Director: Krzysztof Pulkowski
Equipment: Bogumiła Twardowska–Rogacewicz

A production by MASKA Theater in Jelenia Góra

chaplin

Thursday, May 16 | 8 p.m. | Schauspielhaus (Studio)
https://www.thespis.de/en/chaplin-2/
Language: English
Running time: 69 min.

by and with PIP UTTON

Charlie Chaplin is arguably the most important artist that cinema has produced, certainly its most extraordinary performer and probably still its most universal icon.

In his highly praised monodrama, THESPIS veteran Pip Utton, who comes to Kiel for the tenth time, delves into Chaplin’s soul.

In the early hours of Christmas Day 1977, an old man shuffles around tiredly, makes himself a cup of tea and begins to talk conversationally about his life: his many great successes, his achievements, his obsessive search for perfection, his dark and impoverished beginnings, his love-hate relationship with America and his irresistible passion for young women throughout his life. The audience is drawn more and more into his story.

But the tone gradually changes, and it soon becomes clear that we are in the presence of two personalities. Pip literally steps in and out of the screen becoming Chaplin, stripping away the myths and revealing the man beneath.

Director: Geoff Bullen

A Pip Utton Theater Company production

ANJA KIMMELMANN
Monika Haeger – inside stasi

Friday, May 17 | 6 p.m. | Flandernbunker
https://www.thespis.de/en/monika-haeger-inside-stasi-2/
Language: German
Running time: approx. 60 min.

by NICOLE HEINRICH
with ANJA KIMMELMANN

“If you are on the right side, everything is justified,” says the title character in the documentary monodrama MONIKA HAEGER – INSIDE STASI and sees this as legitimation for immoral actions. Betrayal, fraud and lies ensure her success as an unofficial state security employee. What fills her with pride in her zealous service for what she sees as a good cause plunges others into misfortune.

The piece tells GDR history based on the case of Monika Haeger (1945-2006) and shows state’s injustice. Raised in a socialist orphanage, Haeger became a loyal GDR citizen and Stasi employee. She spies on a women’s group led by the civil rights activist Bärbel Bohley. Haeger’s work led to arrests, interrogations, imprisonment, and at times expatriation from the GDR.

Author/director Nicole Heinrich spent three years researching her impressive documentary and, together with actress Anja Kimmelmann, received widespread praise for it.

Director: Nicole Heinrich

none without the other

Friday, May 17 | 8 p.m. | Schauspielhaus (Studio) | Double Performance with Bea Ehlers-Kerbekian | First Performance
https://www.thespis.de/en/none-without-the-other/
Language: German
Running time: approx. 110 min. (20 min. break)

after HELMUT HEISSENBÜTTEL
with MARTIN ENGLER

“Discovering the world in words” could be the aim of the expedition, with which the actress Bea Ehlers-Kerbekian, the composer and cellist Bo Wiget and the director and actor Martin Engler venture into the unknown, the monstrous and immediate presence of Heißenbüttel’s universe.

The first part of the evening, a linguistic-musical momentary composition, uses Helmut Heißenbüttel’s poetic instruments: verbal devices and acrobatics, quote collages and overlays, fragments in new contexts with which patterns of reality are declined and certainties are revoked in the blink of an eye.

Director: Martin Engler
Music: Bo Wiget

Photo: Martin Engler

BEA EHLERS-KERBEKIAN
the world of Mary magdalene

Friday, May 17 | 8 p.m. | Schauspielhaus (Studio) | Double Performance with Martin Engler | First Performance
https://www.thespis.de/en/the-world-of-mary-magdalene/
Language: German
Running time: approx. 110 min. (20 min. break)

after HELMUT HEISSENBÜTTEL
with BEA EHLERS-KERBEKIAN

In the second part, we are taken into Mary Magdalene’s cave, a transit space where “life has not yet ended and death has not yet begun”. What is being negotiated is “a process from which no one can escape”.

Mary Magdalene’s world is “everyone’s world when the world ceases to be.” A constant balancing act between direct experience and distanced observation, trying to distinguish between hallucination and reality, and maintaining a connection to the world for as long as possible.

Director: Martin Engler
Music: Bo Wiget

Photo: Martin Engler

www.thespis.de

BIRUTE MAR
mother’s milk
https://www.thespis.de/en/mothers-milk/
Wednesday, May 15 | 8 p.m. | Schauspielhaus (Studio)

Language: Lithuanian, with English Subtitles
Running time: approx. 75 min.

adapted from NORA IKSTENA
by and with BIRUTE MAR

Photo: D. Matvejev

Tuesday, May 14 | 8 p.m. | Die Pumpe
AL JACOBI
mimu gloves & storytelling
https://www.thespis.de/en/one-man-nutcracker-2/
Language: English
Running time: approx. 45 min.

by and with AL JACOBI

A generation amid its own conflicting identity crisis and rebellion against the norms of the past is the starting point for Al Jacobi’s narratives. With banging beats and vivid lyrics, the young wordsmith wants to create a sonic universe that is both innovative and unique whilst supporting his ambitious lyrics. Al is the only rapper in the world performing with the MiMU Gloves – a wireless, gesticular MIDI controller used to control various parameters of the music while performing. He uses these for musical control and voice manipulation as well as audiovisual communication with dazzled audiences. Al’s show is at the Red Salon at Pumpe.

Tuesday, May 14 | 8 p.m. | Die Pumpe | Double Performance with Al Jacobi
CHRIS DAVIS
one-man nutcracker
https://www.thespis.de/en/one-man-nutcracker-2/

Language: English
Running time: approx. 60 min.

by and with CHRIS DAVIS

Imagine the Christmas classic THE NUTCRACKER, a two-hour ballet masterpiece condensed into just one hour. And then imagine that instead of a troupe of over 100 ballerinas, there is only ONE… Award-winning actor and author Chris Davis (THESPIS 2018 participant with ONE-MAN APOCALYPSE NOW) plays and dances everything himself: from Marie and Fritz to the Sugar Plum Fairy. And all in what he says is a “hysterical and surprisingly moving show.”

The idea came to the then 37-year-old actor after attending a classic performance of THE NUTCRACKER: “I thought, ‘What if one person tried to play all these roles?’ That would be really fun and challenging.”

Davis spontaneously decided to take ballet lessons to prepare himself for this challenge. “You will experience the whole story of the Nutcracker,” he promises. “Everything is there, every piece of music, just compressed. It lasts about an hour and is very, very funny.”

Director: Chris Davis

Tuesday, May 14 | 6 p.m. | Schauspielhaus (Studio)
https://www.thespis.de/en/ash-tree-love/
STEVE KARIER
ash-tree love

Language: German
Running time: approx. 60 min.

by THERESIA WALSER
with STEVE KARIER

ASH-TREE LOVE tells the unusual love story of a man and a tree. A story in which the protagonist makes the bold claim that with this love the chapter of s*xuality must be rewritten. One summer night he talks himself into a frenzy that gradually turns into despair as dry leaves fall on him from his beloved “ash-tree”.

The renowned Freiburg playwright Theresia Walser writes a role perfectly tailored to Steve Karier. Is it a relationship comedy for one person or an environmental farce in times of climate change? How do we actually perceive our natural environment? What kind of a relationship does an individual human being have to the nature that surrounds him – in the park or in his own garden? And anyway: why are love stories between humans and trees so rare?

Director: Daliah Kentges

A co-production of Kunstfest Weimar and Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg Fundamental a.s.b.l.
In cooperation with Kultur|lx – Arts Council Luxembourg.

Photo: Thomas Müller

THESPIS Internationales Monodrama Festival | c/o Jolanta Sutowicz | Kiel
Monday, May 13 | 8 p.m. | KulturForum
CHRISTIAN JUNGWIRTH
rest in a glas
https://www.thespis.de/en/rest-in-a-glass/

Language: German
Running time: approx. 80 min.

with CHRISTIAN JUNGWIRTH

Life of the real estate agent Max is all about hopes, defeats, desires and power, manipulation of other people, but also longing for love. Friendship, love, s*x, success, addiction, stupidity and alleged cleverness blend into or are confused with one another. It remains to be seen what wins in the end. Will it be love or greed? Only one thing is clear: without love, everything is in vain. And Max is in all of us.

Edward Albee and Charles Bukowski clearly influenced Karl-Friedrich Reinhardt’s text. He admits that “his life in and with the theater” began with them. Christian Jungwirth is an actor, dubbing speaker (i.e. for Bavaria Radio), author and journalist, and is co-founder of the Zimmertheater Uffing.

Vor der Vorstellung gibt es eine Stückeinführung auf Deutsch und Englisch.

Director: Matthias Olof Eich
Photo: Barbara Jungwirth

Monday, May 13 | 6 p.m. | Die Pumpe
PETER TRABNER
Life of Diogenes
THESPIS Internationales Monodrama Festival | c/o Jolanta Sutowicz

Language: German
Running time: approx. 65 min.

von und mit PETER TRABNER

Peter Trabner is a primal force on stage and has incredible talent for improvisation. His brilliant one-man shows are exciting, funny, clever and brimming with spontaneity. With his DEATH OF EMPEDOCLES, Trabner delivered a gripping piece on the climate crisis at the last THESPIS Festival in 2022 and made the connection between consumption and environmental destruction clear. His new work LIFE OF DIOGENES also takes a critical look at our consumer society.

Peter Trabner climbs into the barrel with Diogenes and philosophizes about what drives people in today’s turbo-capitalist times. Why we get rid of excess things only to accumulate new ones. Why leasing contracts always keep us up to date with the latest technology, banks bundle our loans, but we still admire the tidying expert Marie Kondō because she questions whether our sweater still makes us happy. Is what Diogenes demanded in ancient Greece – to renounce the consumption – still possible today?

Director: Peter Trabner
Photo: Jaqueline Friedrich
https://www.thespis.de/en/life-of-diogenes/

SEBASTIAN SŁOMIŃSKI
mad dog
https://www.thespis.de/en/mad-dog/
Sunday, May 12 | 8 p.m. | Die Pumpe

Sprache: Polish, with english subtitles
Running time: approx. 50 min.

with SEBASTIAN SŁOMIŃSKI

The premiere of Sebastian Słominski’s debut monodrama created quite a stir in his home country. Based on a reportage by the award-winning Polish journalist Wojciech Tochman, MAD DOG is a gripping and shocking confession of a young priest, wrestling with internal conflicts related to his core beliefs and his awakening homos*xuality. In impressive episodes, he tells of a life between forbidden desire and s*xual self-confidence.

Sebastian Słomiński is co-founder of the Pijana Sypialnia (Drunken Bedroom) Theater and played in several sensational performances by Sławomir Narloch.

Director/Stage adaptation: Marcin Bortkiewicz
Costume: Emilia Czartoryska
Production: Malgorzata Zarzycka

"Martha"
https://www.thespis.de/en/martha-2/
Sunday, May 12 | 6 p.m. | Schauspielhaus (Studio) | First Performance

Language: Polish
Running time: approx. 65 min.

mit MARTA GRABYSZ

After a long creative break, the Polish actress and singer Marta Grabysz returns to the stage with a powerful autobiographical monodrama, written especially for her by her compatriot, actor, director and poet, Henryk Wrozynski. This show is a THESPIS project, and premiers at the 15th edition of the festival.

Marta Grabysz is a graduate of the renowned Theater Academy in Cracow and used to sing at the legendary Cracow venue, Piwnica pod Baranami. Henryk Wrozynski who lives in Seattle (USA), studied together with Marta Grabysz, was active in theaters in Poland and the USA, and directed the Studio 21 theater in Tacoma for many years.

There will be an introduction in German and English prior to the show.

Director: Henryk Wrozynski

The secret is already open :)

THESPIS Copyright © 2024 · All Rights Reserved · THESPIS Internationales Monodrama Festival | c/o Jolanta Sutowicz | Osloring 41 | 24109 Kiel | Tel.: +49 157 57801106 | [email protected]

https://www.kn-online.de/kultur/regional/komoedianten-kiel-jolanta-sutowicz-erinnert-an-florence-foster-jenkins-XQK44YOYLRBPFM2X64UQUXBY6Y.html

Komödianten Kiel: Schauspielerin Jolanta Sutowicz erinnert an Florence Foster-Jenkins Es mangelte ihr an Rhythmus, und sie traf selten den Ton – und gerade damit wurde Florence Foster-Jenkins zur Sängerinnen-Legende. Und war vielfach Stoff für Film und Bühne. Jetzt macht die Kieler Schauspielerin Jolanta Sutowicz die schräge Sängerin zur Bühnenfigur bei den Komödianten.

ICH SINGE HEUTE ABEND
Eröffnung des Festivals THESPIS mit ANGELA WINKLER am 11.Mai 2024, Schauspielhaus Kiel
Foto: Joachim Gern

The final edition of THESPIS will be in May 2024. Our program is complete. Unfortunately, there is no space for more shows and the application process was closed. We appreciate your interest in our festival and wish you the best of luck.

14/15 THESPIS: 11.- 18. MAI 2024, KIEL