Goethe: Hermann und Dorothea
By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
A verse epic about a small town taking in refugees, performed by an actor and two tubas.
In 42 days
14 October 2026 · 20:00 Uhr
About Goethe: Hermann und Dorothea
Goethe's verse epic puts two lovers in a small town two centuries ago, at the moment when people displaced by a war upstream arrive at its edge. The house frames the evening as being about the German citizen in the middle of contemporary chaos — which is why it is worth reviving rather than exhibiting.
One speaker and two tubas
The staging is the surprise, and the billing itself calls the instrumentation audacious. It should not work. What it does is keep the hexameters from settling into piety: the same passage turns tragic or comic depending on what the brass decides to do underneath it, and a verse epic that could be a recitation becomes an argument between a voice and two horns.
Performances
- 14 October 2026, 20:00 Uhr
- 24 November 2026, 20:00 Uhr
Also on stage here
Where
Lucas-Cranach-Haus, Markt 11/12, 99423 Weimar
Organiser
Theater im Gewölbe
Facts checked against the organiser on 29 August 2026
Places and people
Historical figures
1749–1832 • writer • statesman • naturalist
His verse epic, given to one speaker and two tubas.