For a long time, the success of “Leonce and Lena”, a melancholic comedy about a young unsettled couple, fell short. Critics said it lacked action and it was absent of any classical structure. For someone to be doubtful of oneself, like Leonce is – „Oh, if one could be someone else. But for a minute.” – the exhaustion of living in this world, which spiritually connects the protagonists, came in contradiction with the way the individual was portrayed back then. Leonce and Lena are two strangers lost in a world of irrationality, and only irony and self-irony can console them. Their melancholy resides in the refusal to stoke any illusion, and the refusal to idealize any dream they might have. By asking question about identity and the meaning of life, by offering a different perspective on the grotesque political elites, Büchner was ahead of his time. Only his premature death stopped him from becoming a new William Shakespeare.
Cast:
KING PETER FROM POPO KINGDOME – Boris Gaza
PRINCE LEONCE, SON OF PETER – Niko Becker, Richard Hladik
engaged with
PRINCESS LENA FROM THE PIPI KINGDOM – Silvia Török
VALERIO – Harald Weisz
THE GOVERNESS – Isa Berger, Olga Török , Oana Vidoni
MASTER OF CEREMONIES, OF DANCE, AND COURT MASTER – Rareș Hontzu
THE PRESIDENT OF THE STATE COUNCIL – Franz Kattesch
MADAME PRESIDENT – Tatiana Sessler-Toami
HANDMAIDENS – Isa Berger, Olga Török, Oana Vidoni
The Teacher
COURT PRIEST – Daniel Ghidel
SPY – Simona Vintilă
ROSETTA – Daniela Török
SERVANTS, GENTLEMAN-IN-WAITING, POLICE OFFICERS – Radu Brănici
Daniel Ghidel
Simona Vintilă
Direction assistance: Isolde Cobeţ
Scenography: Helmut Stürmer
Costumes: Ioana Popescu
Dramaturgy: Rudolf Herbert
Make-up: Bojita Ilici
Technical direction: Adrian Georgescu
Direction: Niky Wolcz (a.G.)
