Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant
Theatre

Complex emotions on an empty stage

Fassbinder's most frequently performed play deals with the fatal aspects of desire. It is about love in capitalism. The successful fashion designer Petra von Kant has already thrown her husband and all other conventions concerning love and desire overboard. But her new romance is far from being a utopian aspiration. Her relationships with her female lover and her assistant reveal the true balance of power. Petra's apartment becomes the primal scene of reckoning with the social forces at work. A virtuoso melodrama with six strong female characters, staged by French director Emilie Charriot, who was celebrated last season for the «rare enjoyment of pure theatre drama».