Herrmann's Battle

"Herrmann's Battle" focuses on war – one of Kleist's central themes which both fascinated and troubled him. Based on his literary treatment of the military conflicts of his time, this theatre project investigated the relevance of Kleist's artistic legacy in today's discourse and examined to what extent the information network of the 21st century can become the setting for future wars.

Recent cyber attacks on computer systems have demonstrated that networked information technology is playing a larger role in military strategy, for example, attacks on logistics systems, programmes sabotaging industrial equipment, hacker-organized attacks on 'enemy' servers and drones. Computing facilities have become attractive targets for a variety of well-disguised attacks from every corner of the world.

For the theatre project "Herrmann's Battle", Rimini Protokoll collaborated with experts who are familiar with digital war strategy and warfare scenarios of the future. They interconnected several major themes in Kleist's work, and against this backdrop, compared and contrasted classical and modern theories of war.

Artistic directors: Helgard Haug and Daniel Wetzel (Rimini Protokoll), With: Barbara Bishay (Facebook-Counter-Revolutionary), Nathan Fain (Hardware Reverse Engineer), Peter Glaser (CCC veteran, poet) u.a.; Research and Dramaturge: Sebastian Brünger, Research and Assistence: Juliane Hahn, Assistence: Mathilde Benignus and Jonas Heldt, Music: Christian Schöfer, Set design: Folke Köbberling and Martin Kaltwasser; Assistence Light, Video, Set-design: Marc Jungreithmeier, Production management: Katja Sonnemann.

A production of Rimini Apparat in Coproduction with Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Staatsschauspiel Dresden and Comédie de Reims / Reims Festival Scènes d'Europe. In Cooperation with Messe und Veranstaltungs GmbH Frankfurt (Oder).

Venues and schedule:
20 October 2011: World premiere at the Kleist Festival Days at the Kleist Forum, Frankfurt (Oder)
14–18 November 2011: Hebbel am Ufer HAU 2, Berlin
2 and 3 December 2011: Staatsschauspiel Dresden
15 and 16 December 2011: Comédie de Reims / Reims Festival Scènes d'Europe