Bastian Kraft
Born in Göppingen in 1980, Bastian Kraft studied Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen. he subsequently worked as an Assistant Director at the Vienna Burgtheater, where he staged «The Picture of Dorian Gray» in the Vestibül in 2010. He won the audience prize at the festival «Radikal jung» in 2010 with his production of Franz Kafka’s «Amerika» (Thalia Theater Hamburg) and again in 2012 with his production of Thomas Mann’s «Felix Krull» (Volkstheater München). His other productions include «The Miser. A family painting after Molière» by PeterLicht (2012, Vienna Schauspielhaus), Heinrich von Kleist’s «The Broken Jug» (2012, Thalia Theater Hamburg), «The Talented Mr. Ripley» after Patricia Highsmith (2013, Schauspiel Frankfurt), «Dogville» by Lars von Trier (2014, Schauspiel Köln), Jean Genet’s «The Maids» (2015, Schauspielhaus Zürich) and «Mephisto» after the novel by Klaus Mann (2018, Vienna Burgtheater). In April 2019 he directed «ugly duckling» with actors and drag queens at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. «Lulu» is his first work at the Residenztheater.
Productions
«And often the outward signs of ascent only become apparent once the decline has begun again.» In his 1901 novel, subtitled «The Decline of a Family», Thomas Mann uses precise characterisation and an ironic style to describe the incipient structural collapse of the grande bourgeoisie. Mann drew his inspiration for «Buddenbrooks» from the story of his own family in Lübeck and people of the city where he was living at the time: Munich. Mann shows the potential complexity of relations between North and South Germany with considerable humour in the relationship between Tony Buddenbrook and the Munich hop-trader Alois Permaneder.
Buddenbrooks