Piece-Info

To accompany the new production of »Pique Dame« (»The Queen of Spades«), the Historical Archive of Saxon State Theatres is once again inviting visitors to attend the popular series of events »Aktenzeichen«. Drawing on historical sources, the exciting history of the various productions of this work will be traced and an attempt made to draw connections to the current new staging by Andreas Dresen. Both critics and the audience were entranced by the first performance of this work in Dresden on 26 January 1929, under the baton of Fritz Busch and imaginatively staged by Otto Ehrhardt. Shortly after the end of World War II, on 22 June 1947, a second production was presented in Dresden’s Tonhalle with a cast featuring Christel Goltz as Liza, Bernd Aldenhoff as Herman and Arno Schellenberg as Count Tomsky. In particular, the enigmatic figure of the Countess fascinated the reviewers, who all described her in some detail; for example as »[a]n old woman, frozen like a mummy, heartless and ossified... Not a creature of flesh and blood, but one already half dead, yet who is uncannily reinvigorated when she has to fight to keep her secret.« This ghostly figure, the riddle of the three cards and the secret behind the success of the three Dresden productions will be explored by archivist Katrin Rönnebeck and dramaturge Benedikt Stampfli … with great finesse and poker faces.

Venue Historisches Archiv, Ostra-Allee 9, 01067 Dresden (entrance via Malergäßchen)
Information historischesarchiv@saechsische-staatstheater.de