Europa
based on Lars von Trier's film
directed by Kostas Papakostopoulos
Co-Production of Deutsch Griechiches Theater Köln & Greek National Opera Alternative Stage
Urania Theater, Comedia, Schauspiel-haus, Cologne / Greek National Opera Alternative Stage, Athens
November 2019 - Dezember 2020
Set in the ruins of destroyed Germany after the second world war, at the so-called Stunde Null (zero hour), Europa (1991), Lars von Trier’s third film after The element of crime and Epidemic, presents the strenuous efforts for the reconstruction of a new Europe on the ashes left over by its violent past through an allegorical journey. The film stars a young idealist man of German-American descent who comes to Germany in 1945 and unintentionally becomes an object of exploitation by two rivaling camps: the fanatical Nazis, the so-called “Werewolf” guerrillas, and the American secret services.
The play portrays a modern-day citizen taking the same journey to that era’s postwar Germany. The protagonist is fascinated by unexpected meetings and tormented by painful memories, which will lead him to put his values to the test and, in the end, reject them.
Herbert Mitschke’s music and John Seidler’s black and white videos create an evocative Kafkaesque atmosphere in this nightmare journey through Europe’s history. In a time of increasingly bigger disputes, controversies and doubts about the future of the European Union, the director borrows Lars von Trier’s motifs to bring out the dangers lurking in its future through Europe’s violent past.
The train runs as if it is possessed, with its shutters down, across Europe’s bombarded landscape. Can anyone change its course?
"You will now listen to my voice. My voice will help you and guide you still deeper into Europa. I shall now count from one to ten. On the count of ten, you will be in Europa.” (from Lars von Trier’s film Europa)
Cast: Thomas Franke, Florian Gierlichs, Nikos Goudanakis, Stefan Kleinert, Lisa Sophie Kusz, Antonis Michalopoulos, Vassilis Nalbantis