When does the performance of Thyestes take place?

The performance begins on Saturday, October 10, 2026, at 5:00 PM.

Where is Thyestes performed?

The performance takes place at the theater tent at Küchengarten, Am Franzosenweg 0, 19053 Schwerin.

How long does the production last?

The performance lasts about 2 hours and 10 minutes and is played without intermission.

Who directed Thyestes?

The direction is by Joanna Lewicka. The adaptation is by Hugo Claus after Seneca and was translated from Dutch by Rosemarie Still.

What artistic genres does the performance combine?

The production combines acting, choir, dance, video, sound design, and specially composed music.

What is Thyestes about?

The tragedy tells of the brothers Atreus and Thyestes and their destructive enmity, determined by power, betrayal, revenge, and familial violence.

Thyestes in Schwerin: Ancient horror meets contemporary stage violence

Name: Thyestes
Start: 2026-10-10T17:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-10-10T19:10:00+02:00
Location: Theaterzelt am Küchengarten

Thyestes: A dark stage experience about power, revenge, and human abysses

At the theater tent at Küchengarten in Schwerin, a cross-genre production of Thyestes by Hugo Claus after Seneca unfolds. The ancient material leads to the center of a destructive family story, where wounded power, boundless revenge, and the spiral of violence cross every limit of human reason.

Ancient tragedy with terrifying present

Seneca's tragedy is one of the most radical depictions of human abysses. Hugo Claus shaped the material into a modern, linguistically powerful adaptation, which does not preserve the myth in a museum-like way, but rather brings it to the stage with great immediacy. The focus is on the brothers Atreus and Thyestes, whose enmity culminates in a catastrophe of betrayal, retaliation, and familial annihilation.

The dramaturgy follows the law of escalation: one injury leads to the next, new revenge grows out of revenge. The ancient curse of the Tantalids appears as a mirror of a world where violence has become the political and private norm.

A production by Joanna Lewicka

Director Joanna Lewicka opens her work as theatre director in Schwerin with Thyestes. Her direction relies on an uncompromising theatrical atmosphere and an intense connection of acting, choir, dance, video, sound design, and specially composed music.

The stage design by Norbert Bellen creates a rough play space for the brotherly conflict. Costumes by Marta Góźdź intensify the physical and spiritual boundary dissolution of the characters, while light, sound, and movement transform the evening into a suffocating echo chamber. The Mecklenburg State Orchestra, the Schwerin Sing Academy, and the Schwerin Ballet expand the production into a polyphonic stage event.

Acting art between linguistic violence and physicality

The roles of Atreus and Thyestes are embodied by Astrid Meyerfeldt and Norbert Stöß. Their duel forms the dramatic center of the evening: Two people meet as perpetrator and victim, as relatives and bitter adversaries. Frank Büttner shapes the figure of Tantalus, while the ensemble, choir, and dancers carry the dimension of the myth into the space.

The production does not demand comfortable distance from the audience. Rhythm of speech, physical presence, and musical density create a stage experience that confronts the viewers directly with the anatomy of cruelty. Critics described the performance as an artistic thunderclap and as a strong debut of the new theatre director.

An evening without false reassurance

Thyestes focuses on the destructive logic of power and retaliation. The piece asks how much violence a family, a society, and an individual can endure. The cross-genre production connects ancient mythology with contemporary reflections on war, tyranny, and the return of evil.

The performance lasts about two hours and ten minutes and is played without intermission. The audience can expect an intense, physical, and musically charged theatrical work that resonates long after the final image. Those who engage with this uncompromising stage experience encounter theatre as an open wound and as a precise diagnosis of the present.

Conclusion: Ancient horror, live and immediate

Joanna Lewicka's Thyestes combines classic tragedy, modern direction, and cross-genre stage art into a highly impactful evening. Between choir, acting, dance, music, and video images, a theatrical atmosphere is created that does not soothe the audience but rather shakes them awake. Experience this extraordinary production on October 10, 2026, at the theater tent at Küchengarten in Schwerin.