Musical Theater
Singing in Hungarian with German subtitles
Brutality was commonplace in the impoverished Hungarian village of Nagyrév. Many of the men were traumatized by war and succumbed to alcohol. The women worked and took care of the children and daily life. And they began to unite; they killed 300 people, including their husbands: the deadliest arsenic epidemic in history led by women.
Historically completely unique, the events nonetheless align with many narratives of violence in which women fought back and took over the regime: from the Amazons in Kleist's Penthesilea through Clytemnestra in Aeschylus' Agamemnon to Euripides' Medea.
Can the attempt to rise up against a violent system with violence be a first step? Students of the Hanns Eisler School of Music connect the story of the murderesses with ancient myths and utopias of a society without violence, inspired by thinkers like bell hooks. Singing and drums blend experimental contemporary sounds with folk song-like reminiscences and improvised percussion.
WITH Kirsi Alanko / Sara Wijlaars / Sophia Marie Pott / Sophia Haider DRUMS Lan Sticker DIRECTION / TEXT Christina Constanze Polzer DRAMATURGY / TEXT Clara Magdalena Richter COMPOSITION Cecelia Philippi Palumbo STAGE / COSTUME Pauline Heitmann MUSICAL INSTRUCTION Yusuke Takai LIGHTING / TECHNICAL SUPPORT Marco Philipp MENTORING DIRECTION Paul-Georg Dittrich ASSISTANCE STAGE / COSTUME Josefine Schmitz
CHRISTINA CONSTANZE POLZER studied acting at the Anton Bruckner University in Linz. At the regional theater there, she was engaged as a young actress in the acting studio from 2016-2018. After her studies, she worked freelance (including TdJ Vienna, Raimundspiele Gutenstein) before being engaged at the Tiroler Landestheater Innsbruck from 2019 to 2023. In 2023, she directed “All das Schöne” by D. Macmillan in Klagenfurt, and in 2024, following her win of the South Tyrolean FRINGE competition, she directed her first opera: “LORIT – An End Time Opera,” presented at Teatro SanbàPolis (Trento), at the Vereinigte Bühnen Bozen/Bolzano, and at the Tiroler Landestheater.
CECELIA PHILIPPI PALUMBO is a Dutch-American composer, violist, pianist, and artist who has been studying composition at HfM Hanns Eisler with Hanspeter Kyburz and James Wood since 2024. She is a multiple award winner of international composition competitions and is inspired by literature, history, math, and other sciences. Her compositions have been performed by the Matangi Quartett, HERMESensemble, NBE, and the Berlin Lautsprecherorchester, as well as at Gaudeamus Muziekweek and November Music. Recent projects include the children's ballet “Paloma” and the musical theater piece “Nachtfalter.” She is a co-founder of the concert format “Zusammenhall.”
Pauline Heitmann is a stage and costume designer focusing her work in Berlin and Munich. She studied theater sciences as well as stage and costume design in Berlin, Leipzig, and London. She is currently working as a costume design assistant at the Münchner Kammerspiele, where she recently designed the costumes for “Balance and Harmony.” Her design practice spans music theater, drama, performance, and film, with a particular interest in spaces and costumes that question prevailing power structures and explore utopias. Her work has been realized, among other places, as part of the Bayreuther Festspiele 2025, together with the collective prog.dep.89 in Halle 6 and the Reaktorhalle Munich.
CLARA MAGDALENA RICHTER studied musicology and philosophy at HU Berlin as well as music at Durham University. In 2024, she began her Master’s in Production Dramaturgy at HfM Hanns Eisler. During her studies, she focused primarily on research into female composers and feminist approaches in music theater. She worked as a dramaturge for the children’s opera “Tannhäuser” at the Bayreuther Festspiele, for the world premiere project “What Joy” at the “Neuen Szenen VII” in the Tischlerei of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the play development “nirgend_anders” with the young northern German philharmonic. From 2022-25, she was engaged as a dramaturge at the Kinderopernhaus Berlin.
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
