THE BROKEN JUG by Heinrich von Kleist

THE BROKEN JUG

by Heinrich von Kleist

Director: Akilas Karazisis & Nikos Hatzopoulos

From 10 December 2022

Heinrich von Kleist was inspired to write The Broken Jug by an eighteenth-century copper engraving and a personal challenge as to whether he could write a comedy.  First staged by Goethe in 1808 in Weimar, the play presents Adam, a judge who is called on to establish who broke a historic jug in the bedroom of Eve, an offence for which he himself is the main suspect. Eve's mother sues her fiancé, and the plot thickens...  The audience knows from the outset who broke the jug, but the outcome of the trial remains uncertain as, with comic suspense, we see how the Establishment covers up its own misdeeds.  

Kleist, the great 19th century writer who influenced diverse movements from realism to expressionism and existentialism, has the judge investigate himself, comically inverting the template of the myth of Oedipus.

The Broken Jug is a masterfully rendered folk comedy that satirises social convention, the fantasies of a glorious past, travesties of justice, but also the disadvantaged position of women at the mercy of the whims of male privilege.

Production team

Translation: Giorgos Depastas

Director: Akilas Karazisis & Nikos Hatzopoulos

Sets: Clio Boboti

Costumes: Vasiliki Syrma

Music: Kostas Vomvolos

Lighting: Alekos Anastasiou

Dramaturg: Eri Kyrgia

Assistant director: Vasilis Magouliotis

Set design assistant: Aggeliki Vassiliopoulou Kampitsi

Costume design assistant: Olga Evangelidou

Cast (in alphabetical order):

Martha Frintzila, Giorgos Giannakakos, Elena-Maria Ilia, Akilas Karazisis, Alexandra Ospici, Kitty Paitazoglou, Panagiotis Panagopoulos, Christina-Melina Polyzoni, Giorgos Symeonidis, Thanos Tokakis, Nikos Hatzopoulos.

Recommended seats for best surtitles viewability: central seats in the stalls & the lower circle