Stamatis Polenakis, Winter journey
This is the chronicle of the famous suicide of poet Heinrich von Kleist and Henriette Vogel on the banks of lake Wannsee in the autumn of 1811.The play follows almost to the letter those dramatic events as described by the depositions and narratives of eye witnesses as well as in police reports. In the text, that unfolds entirely through parallel monologues, the protagonists of the true story meet other characters devised by the author, and the actual events are correlated to other events that could have occurred but are from the realm of dreams. The play ultimately morphs into a love story in the besieged Leningrad of 1942.
KLEIST: I remember the curls of her hair covering her brow.
HENRIETTE: I remember Leningrad in the winter of 1942. The frozen wind whistling through the broken panes. The glassy eyes of the dead.
KLEIST: I remember Lydia Brawn.
HENRIETTE: I remember my mother’s soft voice.
KLEIST: I remember an old dog I had once chased away with stones.
HENRIETTE: One day the whole world will be covered with flowers. The flowers once watered by the tears of poor patients in hospital rooms.
KLEIST: Almighty God, help us. The earth is poisoned. All the trees have been uprooted. No one will bless the fruits and the soil anymore.
HENRIETTE: Fly, my soul, away from this world.
KLEIST: You who will come after us, solve the riddle of death with your birth
Director: Athena Stourna
Lighting design: Angelos Gounaras
Actors: Nikos Anastasopoulos, Iliana Pazarzi, Antonis Tsiotsiopoulos
Excerpts from Schubert’s Winterreise performed by Andreas Mertzelos (piano) and Alexandros Vamvoukos (vocals)