Prometheus

»Who, after all, has given these new gods /
Their honours and distinctions, if not me?«

Creator of man, bringer of fire, shackle-bound: Prometheus. Symbolic figure of the progress of civilisation, darling of humankind and therefore no darling of the gods. Son of Iapetus and Clymene, he stole fire from Zeus and gave it to man. For this he was punished by the father of the gods and shackled to a rock in the Caucasus wilderness where, every day, an eagle pecked his eternally regenerating liver from his body – until Hercules finally freed him.

In his directorial debut for the Schaubühne, actor Bastian Reiber – who will also be appearing on stage – is focusing on one of the most important figures in Greek mythology. »This story sounds incredibly exciting. I really must read it sometime. Imagine: someone somehow shackles another to a rock. And then he’s stuck there ... that’s pretty nasty. That’s why I make theatre.« Reiber sees Prometheus as a revolutionary and anarchist who invents humankind as an act of rebellion against the gods. Rebellion is also the essence of comedy. A contradiction to those who want to create sense where there is none. Rather than being a flight into insanity, comedy is a fight against those who claim to know how the world works. Prometheus, who questions the accepted laws and breaks the rules, does exactly that. And he pays a terrible price for it. Thus comedy, if it takes itself seriously, cannot afford to be innocuous.