Amphitryon

»Who am I? After all, I too must be something.« Imagine meeting yourself. You return home just wanting to report your master’s victory over the Athenians and are unceremoniously thrown out by someone claiming to be you. Imagine, furthermore, that you arrive at your house and realise you’ve been cuckolded: someone has taken on your appearance and spent the night with the one you love. Envisage that this other version of yourself is a god pretending to be you and everyone believes them to be the original and you to be just an inferior copy. Imagine that nobody is sure anymore of who you are. Above all, yourself. A perfect identity crisis. And you’re caught in the middle of it.

»Amphitryon«, which premiered in Paris in 1668, is Molière’s only play based on a story from ancient mythology. This sardonic comedy, in which the god Jupiter takes on the guise of Theban general Amphitryon to seduce the latter’s wife, Alcmene, in his absence, is a subtle play about appearances and reality and provides a tragic reflection on existential insecurity. Fitting material for Herbert Fritsch who, in his fourth production for the Schaubühne, dives into the confusion of identities: what if we’re not as unique as we think we are?

>>> Learn more about the production in Pearson's Preview: Playing Lego with Herbert Fritsch

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