Double Serpent

Bonds, cuts and blows are part of Connor’s and Felix’ love life. When an ex-partner accuses Felix of abuse, Connor is taken back to his childhood. Memories of traumatic experiences are awakened: a young Connor in a damp cellar, isolated, eavesdropping on the illegal machinations of his organ-dealing stepfather’s. A harrowing thriller unfolds in a greenish, dimly lit house of spirits.


Almost incorporeally, the actors move through the horror-esque world of the production, with various time-levels flowing into each other. Through language, sound, lighting and impressive images, Ersan Mondtag and his team create a suspense-filled atmosphere where the limits between reality and fantasy, consent and coercion become blurred. 


Statement of the Jury

This play fits Ersan Mondtag’s nightmarish theatre language like a glove. In the text by dramatist Sam Max from New York, meaning is assembled like a puzzle where all the pieces find their places only at the end. Mondtag’s staging is peopled by stylised, artificial characters whose shells break open bit by bit.


Biographical facts come to light, levels of time and reality become more relatable. The balance of power, on the other hand, appears more and more obscure. What are we watching in Alexander Naumann’s fantasy-art noveau set? Is it a consensual gay BDSM-relationship or sexual abuse? Young Connor is at the centre of fascinating loops of light, sound and slow motion, where violence is ever present – even though it is never displayed, not even in Luis August Krawen’s computer-animated videos. This is no show for voyeurs: Instead, this artistic synthesis is disturbing in a unique, almost ceremonial manner, and it develops a hypnotic slipstream.

• Double Serpent by Sam Max
  
• Translated by Wilke Weermann
  
• Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden
  
• Premiere: 29.9.2024
  

MORE INFORMATION

• 2 hours 15 minutes, no interval
  
• In German with English subtitles
  
• Recommended for ages 16 and up