Awakening

A company of actors present Siddhartha Gautama’s path to becoming Buddha. There’s no theatre, just a bare room without a stage. In the centre, a space where the actors step into their roles. The performance takes its course, with the actor playing Gautama merging more and more with Buddha. Then a funeral procession interrupts the performance. The boundaries between theatre and reality begin to blur. Bombs fall, war rages. With war comes death – from which not even Buddha himself is immune. But when all hope seems to have been extinguished, the Buddha’s stories remain; and they to teach us the only way out of suffering is awakening.

The multi-award-winning composer Param Vir has become an integral part of the contemporary music scene. Born in Delhi into a family that cultivated the heritage of Indian classical music, he moved to London at the age of 34 to study composition with Peter Maxwell-Davies and Oliver Knussen, among others. In his music, Param Vir combines western and eastern aesthetics and creates unique, transcendental soundscapes. This style characterises AWAKENING, a heartfelt work which he composed for Theater Bonn.

For the world premiere of AWAKENING, he has Vasily Barkhatov at his side, one of the most sought-after directors in opera. Barkhatov has already thrilled audiences in Bonn with his productions of Umberto Giordano’s Siberia and Peter Tchaikovsky’s Eugen Onegin.

Cast: 

Music director: Daniel Johannes Mayr

Stage director: Vasily Barkhatov

Set designer: Zinovy Margolin

Costume designer: Olga Shaishmelashvili

Lighting designer: Alexander Sivaev

Chorus director: André Kellinghaus

With: NN, Yannick-Muriel Noah, Marie Heeschen and others