Nibelungen Festival
Heroes like us – “Brynhild” in Worms
Lena Urzendowsky as Brynhild (M) has taken on the title role. photo
© Uwe Anspach/dpa
The Nibelungen saga begins in splendor and sinks into hate. Does the heroic epic on the Rhine have to end like this? The Nibelungen Festival asks itself this fateful question.
This play is a frontal assault on all the senses. As the evening light slowly fades away, the worlds of life collide on the open-air stage in front of the Imperial Cathedral. With “Brynhild” they present themselves Nibelungen Festival in Worms this year as a cage full of fools. Dragon slayer Sigurd is disgraced as a murderer, and the valkyrie Brynhild does not want to give up her dream of the victory of love over power. Author Maria Milisavljevic asks who determines who we are. Occasionally even humor shimmers through the drama about dragon blood and loyalty to the Nibelungen on Friday evening.
Ten tons of fine-grained sand are spread across the purple stage. Tree trunks lie around, stairs lead nowhere. Desert landscape, apocalyptic mood. But the play begins as a film. A 56 square meter screen shows Sigurd killing the dragon Fafnir – played by Ralf Moeller (“Gladiator”). “Time to die” rattles the warrior from Recklinghausen into the camera. It’s a key scene because it’s not a heroic fight. Defeating the dragon in human form turns out to be the first of Sigurd’s many defeats that hot summer evening.
A colorful panopticon
Director Pınar Karabulut stages “Brynhild” as a comic-like variation of the historical material. A colorful panopticon of characters stumbles through the medieval epic: Who are we – and if so, why? On the way to the answer, the ensemble in one of the oldest cities in Germany only finds more questions in the almost three-hour spectacle – and violence again and again. Before the eyes of Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius in the stands, associations with the Ukraine war can hardly be avoided. The Saturday after the premiere is the 500th day of the Russian war of aggression.
Karabulut puts everything up for discussion in the oversized sandbox and explores a great deal, from gender attributions to the question of origin, and draws a portrait of morals for which director Nico Hofmann did not bring any big stars to Worms this time. Since the beginning of the festival in 2002, there have always been well-known names such as Klaus Maria Brandauer or Jürgen Prochnow. This time Hofmann relies on a diverse and diverse ensemble, mostly with theater experience.
In a “sincere staging” one wanted to reflect the coexistence in a diverse society, said the Ufa boss. Above all, Lena Urzendowsky as battle-weary Brynhild develops an enormous presence in the gold pop culture costume.
audience is required
Milisavljevic’s Brynhild is based on the so-called Edda gap, a gap in the version of the songs “Edda”. Research assumes pages were ripped out.
“Brynhild” demands a lot from the 1,400 spectators in the stands. Sometimes on the screen, sometimes on the stage, sometimes in a restaurant as a backdrop and sometimes in the cathedral – the ensemble around the king’s daughter Kriemhild and the murderer Hagen plays on many levels.
Sometimes the figures seem shrill and degenerate, as if borrowed from the science fiction films “Mad Max” or “Captain Future”. Fans of “Matrix” and Quentin Tarantino will also get their money’s worth. Again and again, the events tilt into the absurd. As announced, it is a “consistently contemporary reading”. Nibelungs 2.0.
The Nibelungenlied is one of the favorite sagas of the Germans. In “Brynhild” old certainties have become brittle. Laina Schwarz as Kriemhild, Jens Albinus as Reginn and Simon Kirsch as Gunnar see disaster approaching – and yet shy away from change. In this they are as much – or rather as little – heroes as we are.
Like everyone else in this play, Bekim Latifi as Sigurd alias Siegfried ends up standing on the ruins of his dreams. The Dragonborn has lost its magic. “How foolish is the belief that a man is only vulnerable in one secret spot” resounds on stage. “Brynhild” can be seen in Worms until July 23.