Klassikermaschine
Opera, Theatre, Ballet

Limitations reveal the master.
Goethe

Hamlet, Käthchen, Othello, Medea. Theater Basel is taking its educational mission seriously. Every month we will be performing a different work of the classical canon. On a specially designed small stage in the foyer. The run time is one hour. Budget-friendly admission. The theatre, ballet and opera departments are also involved in this cross-disciplinary project. Revolving around the most fundamental of all theatre questions: What has it got to do with me?

Dates follow

If you steal from an author it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many it’s research

Wilson Mizner

A one-man show by and with Javier Rodríguez Cobos, who was an ensemble dancer at Theater Basel until the 21/22 season, inspired by the Pink Panther film series. Through physical theatre, dance and video, Cobos approaches not only the clumsy Inspector Clouseau, but also other characters from the first Pink Panther film: the Phantom, a master thief who wants to steal the Pink Panther jewel, as well as Clouseau's wife, who is in cahoots with the Phantom. 

In the first film ‹The Pink Panther› and in most of the sequels, the Inspector is embodied by the legendary slapstick king Peter Sellers. All attempts to recast him were less successful. So it seems that the success of these films cannot be repeated without Sellers. Recasting, double casting and reinterpretation of a role are very common in the performing arts and especially in the dance industry and more and more competences and interdisciplinary performative skills are demanded from the artists. Taking the motif of theft as a starting point, Cobos explores the question of what stealing or copying means in the performing arts. Is there still an original or is everything stolen from somewhere?

 

The divine late-night show

Humans and demigods relax on the Olympian couch and talk openly about their lives in a more complicated family web - motherhood, sisterhood, womanhood. Guests for the evening are Elektra and Clytemnestra.

  • Concept, Performance, Text –Vera Flück
  • Costumes – Olivia Lopez Diaz-Stöcklin, Murielle Véya
  • Stage – Marion Menziger
  • Production management – Lena Lappat
  • Dramaturgy – Timon Jansen
  • Technical support – Maximilian Herber, Christoph Schäufele

One of the three famous operas written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart together with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte, ‹Don Giovanni› is one of the great masterpieces of the operatic repertoire. The main character is the seducer Don Juan, a libertine who does as he pleases. Without shyness or sense of responsibility, he upsets the lives of all who come into contact with him. What begins as a light-hearted game turns out to be a dark story that does not shy away from murder and abuse.

In Lisenka Heijboer Castañon's production, this «dramma giocoso» is brought to the stage in a shorter version. The focus is not on the title character, but on the other characters who have to struggle with Don Giovanni's chaos. In their own way, they search for a way to deal with the trauma caused by this one man. The young talents of the Opera Studio enter the playing field in the foyer of the Theater Basel and bring this Mozart classic to life.

With:

ArtisticTeam:

  • Musical Director – Hélio Vida
  • Director – Lisenka Heijboer Castañon
  • Stage – Marion Menziger
  • Costumes – Mirjam Ophüls
  • Assistant director and evening manager – Tilman aus dem Siepen
  • Surtitles – Riku Rokkanen, Anouk Neyens
  • Technical support – Maximilian Herber, Christoph Schäufele