Die Biene im Kopf (The bee in me)
by Roland Schimmelpfennigby Roland Schimmelpfennig
No break
Nimble, entertaining and with a light touch, the celebrated author Roland Schimmelpfennig’s debut play for young audiences tells of a child who has to rely entirely on their own devices. However, they are not entirely alone, as they have themselves and their imagination. This turns everyday life into a game of life and death through which the child advances from one level to the next. «The Bee in Me» is a «Klub Xtra» production. It is performed in schools. The gym is tuned into a theatre and opens up a new kind of space for everyone involved.
If you are interested in a performance at your school, please contact resi.alle@residenztheater.de.
With generous support from the Freunde des Residenztheaters e.V. and the Hubertus Altgelt-Stiftung.
Trailer
INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR ROLAND SCHIMMELPFENNIG
The playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig was born in Göttingen in 1967 and is one of the most-performed contemporary German dramatists. His plays have been performed all around the world, winning numerous awards. He has worked together with the Residenztheater on numerous occasions and several of his plays have received their world premieres here. To coincide with his debut play for young audiences «Die Biene im Kopf», first performed in 2016 at the Consoltheater Gelsenkirchen, we talked to him about the power of the imagination, theatre artists who have influenced him and inner fortitude.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR ROLAND SCHIMMELPFENNIG
Born in Göttingen in 1967. After spending some time working as a journalist in Istanbul, he trained as a director at the Otto-Falckenberg-Schule in Munich. He has worked as a freelance writer, director and translator since 1996. Schimmelpfennig is one of the most frequently performed playwrights in the German language. His plays – almost 50 of them now – have been translated into numerous languages and are performed all around the world. The director Jürgen Gosch staged the world premieres of several of his plays including «Before/After» (2002, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, invited to Mülheimer Theatertagen 2003), «On Greifswalder Straße» (2006, Deutsches Theater Berlin), «The Animal Kingdom» (2007, Deutsches Theater Berlin) and «Here and Now» (2008, Schauspielhaus Zürich, invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2009). Other plays include «The Woman Before» (2004, director: Stephan Müller, Vienna Burgtheater, invited to the Mülheimer Theatertagen 2005); «End and Beginning» (2006, director: Nicolas Stemann, Vienna Burgtheater); «Idomeneus» (2008, Regie: Dieter Dorn, Residenztheater Munich); «Winter Solstice» (2015, director: Staffan Valdemar Holm, Royal Dramatic Theatre Stockholm); «The Great Fire» (2017, director: Burkhard C. Kosminski, Nationaltheater Mannheim); «Odyssey» (2018, director: Tilmann Köhler, Staatsschauspiel Dresden) and «The World Torn Apart» (2019, director: Tilmann Köhler, Residenztheater München). Schimmelpfennig also directs his own plays, notably «The Golden Dragon» (2009, Vienna Burgtheater, winner of the Mülheim Playwriting Prize 2010 and invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2010); «The Four Points of the Compass» (2011, Salzburg Festival), «The Boy Who Could Fly» (2012, Burgtheater Vienna), «SPAM Fifty Days» (2014, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg) and «Half Moon» (2020, Malmö City Theatre). He has won numerous awards for his work. In addition to two opera libretti, Roland Schimmelpfennig has also written several radio plays and three novels: «One Clear, Ice-cold January Morning at the Beginning of the 21st Century», which was nominated for the Leipzig Book Prize in 2016, «The Language of the Rain» in 2017 and «The Line between Day and Night» in 2021.
Artistic Direction
