Simon Helbling
director, storyteller
Play, 2008
Euripides. Translated by Markos Panteleimon Carelos and Simon Helbling
Extract from the play: Chorus: I want to have a hiding-place far away, where a god as a bird with many feathers brings me to the fast-flying swarms. / I will rise above the waves of the Adriatic, to the floods of Eridano, where sad women are weeping around Phaeton’s shimmering tears in purple salt water. / I will fly to the coast of the Hesperides, where on the beach of singers is the apple tree. There the lord of the sea does not let the sailors sail over the purple. / The border of heaven is near, and Atlas wears it. Near the camp of Zeus in his castle springs the sources of the immortals.
Hippolytos, son of Theseus, is cursed by Aphrodite because he doesn’t care about her. Instead he worshippes Artemis, the goddess of hunting and virginity. Aphrodites revenge leads Hippolytos into a romance with his own stepmother Phaedra and gets him killed by his own father.
A greek tragedy. What a project. It depicted a variety of human abysses in an overwhelming precision. The gods, wherever they want to be read, have made these abysses clear. A dreamy world of music and dance and goddesses, which offered a powerful surface, to drive the figures inexorably into their suffering. But not only dealing with Greek myths was a challenge, because we have also set ourselves the ambitious task of listing the text in an unabridged way.
Cast: Juri Elmer, Yannick Schmuki, Katja Göhler, Stephanie Speiser, Anna Lena Doll, Miriam Jenni, Magali Cunz, Stéphanie Maurer, Matthias Breitanbch Director: Simon Helbling Choreography: Zenta Haerter Written by: Euripides Translation: Markos P. Carelos und Simon Helbling Music: Stéphanie Maurer Stage Design: Lorenz Sigirt und Natalie Brunner Costume Design: Gina Domeniconi and Zenta Haerter Dramaturg: Irène Kummer and Helga Macek Assistant director: Michèle Kalt
Kulturmarkt, Zurich
