Berserkers: Philoctetes

In his version of Philoctetes, Heiner Müller draws on the ancient myth and focuses on the fate of a hero deceived by Odysseus and cast out by the Greeks. He examines the essential problematic of an individual expelled from the collective, whose return to that same collective becomes possible only through an extremely difficult and painful path. This dramatic situation, the clash between collective and individual, coercion and autonomy, investigates in quite radical forms the fundamental political and social questions that largely define our contemporary world. How does the majority treat those perceived as minorities? What might exclusion and expulsion signify in modern society? What is the price of complete withdrawal from the community? What constitutes true loyalty and allegiance? Where do the limits of solidarity lie when political or militaristic interests are at stake?

 

Created in the 1960s, Philoctetes has not lost its initial potential for political and aesthetic rupture. According to the creative team of “Berserkers,” its first staging in the Georgian language may become an essential reflection on power, betrayal, solidarity, and the instrumentalization and dehumanization of the individual within our contemporary political and social context.

 

Cast: Tamara Chumashvili, Irakli Sirbilashvili, Keto Tatishvili, Giorgi Kartozia

Author: Heiner Müller
Director and Translator: Giorgi Jamburia
Set and Costume Design: Tamara Maghlapheridze
Projection: Shio Khidasheli
Lighting: Juba Jimsheleishvili
Producer: Mariam Paichadze