Gespenster – Erika, Klaus und der Zauberer

1969 – the Summer of Love, the final summer of the actor, cabaret artiste and writer Erika Mann. Summer 1911 – Thomas Mann writes the novella “Death in Venice”. 1930 – “Geschwister” (Siblings) by Klaus Mann premieres at the Münchner Kammerspiele: two siblings who love each other and want to die together. 1949 – Klaus takes his own life in Cannes. Erika does not attend her brother’s funeral and instead continues the lecture tour with her father as his private secretary. Summer 1969 – Luchino Visconti begins filming “Death in Venice”. And Erika dies at her parents’ house in Kilchberg on Lake Zurich.

“Gespenster” distils these events into an Erika Mann exhibition of a very special kind where the exhibits take on an unsettling life of their own. The audience can decide for themselves how close they get to the protagonists: a woman in the shadow of a dominant father figure and a brother longing for death. A reflection on desire, guilt and the yearning for liberation.

RAUM+ZEIT comprises the dramaturge Juliane Hendes, writer Lothar Kittstein, director Bernhard Mikeska and set designer Steffi Wurster who have been working together in various constellations since 2009. Their hybrid immersive installations play with the logic of a consistent space-time continuum and the internal world of perception. The collective often combines the live moment with the new digital medium of virtual reality. The RAUM+ZEIT VR installation “ANTIGONE :: COMEBACK. A rehearsal with Weigel and Brecht” was invited to the 2019 Swiss Theatre Festival.

You can experience this immersive theatrical installation via headphones which will be given to you before the start in the theatre. You can use your own smartphone to listen to the soundtrack. The best way to do this is to download the Sennheiser MobileConnect app (Google Play Store, App Store) at home beforehand. Visitors without a smartphone can borrow a device at the theatre.