Twenty six years ago, Pip Simmons’ unforgettable and disturbing production An die Musik was first performed at the Piccolo Theater in Rotterdam before touring throughout Europe. The production shocked audiences throughout Europe, receiving the sort of universal acclaim that only comes around once in a quarter of a century.
“At Buchenwald, Bergen-Belsen and Dachau there were orchestras of prisoners which played German military marches: music to stir the Nazi ideal and, of course, classical music, to remind him that he belonged to a cultured race that produced Mozard, Schubert, Bach, Beethoven and Wagner. Only a few of those musicians have survived. Among those that have, few still play.”
Elie Wiesel, 1975
In a special collaboration with the Jewish State Theatre of Bucharest, Pip Simmons recreated the production with a company of Romanian actors. On a long tour throughout Europe, beginning in Bucharest, ending in Brussels and including – for the first time – performances in Germany, Pip Simmons and the company of Romanian actors brought this remarkable production to an entirely new generation who gave it the same overwhelming response.
A co-production between Artsadmin, Teatrul Evreisc de Stat Bucharest, Festival d’Avignon, Théâtre de la Manufacture CDN Nancy Lorraine, Rotterdamse Schouwburg and the Hebbel Theater Berlin, in association with Kunstfest Weimar.
By Pip Simmons, with music by Chris Jordan, from an original idea by Rudy Engelander.
