Schiffbau-Box
«I sensed it soon would be revealed that bad things were done in bright hope.»
Deianeira, wife of the Greek hero Heracles, partakes in his exile in the city of Trachis, where he has found refuge after a murder he committed. She spends her life worrying about him, as he constantly sets out on new doings, raids, revenge campaigns. They are stranger to one another than they are united in love. Still, jealousy seizes Deianeira when she notices Iole in a group of female prisoners of war being taken to Trachis at Heracles’s request. Because of her, Heracles besieged and destroyed the women’s home town, and now she is supposed to live with him and Deianeira in their house. In an attempt to win back Heracles with a love charm, Deianeira unintentionally poisons him. The robe soaked in the blood of the centaur Nessus, supposed to work its magic, instead brutally corrodes Heracles’s agonizing body.
Sophocles’s tragedy WOMEN of TRACHIS is about heroism and war in a setting where exiles, people who never left, and the displaced meet. How does war change the domestic sphere? What is the price of glorious deeds? And what is their legacy?
Swiss director Jossi Wieler has received numerous awards for his work (Swiss Grand Prix Theatre / Hans Reinhart Ring, several Nestroy Prizes and invitations to the Berlin Theatertreffen). This production marks his return to a Swiss theatre after a long hiatus.