That fairy tale which has probably created the most famous literary tribute to the Christmas tree: ‘The Fir Tree’. A fairy tale about a tree that longs for the future and, in doing so, misses out on the present – a story that takes on a whole new meaning in this age of climate change.
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Märchen im Glaspalast von und mit dem Hexenberg Ensemble: Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern | Der Tannenbaum
Märchen im Glaspalast von und mit dem Hexenberg Ensemble: Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern | Der Tannenbaum
Andersen tells the story of a career that could scarcely be portrayed more brutally:
An adolescent who mistakes the world of appearances for reality, who trades the present for a promise and realises that the promise offers no way back. The applause dies down, the decorations are taken down, the tree is banished to the loft – only when it lies there, worn out and forgotten, does it realise what the forest was.
The Little Match Girl
‘It was terribly cold; it was snowing, and evening was already drawing in.’
New Year’s Eve. Cold, wind, a girl without shoes. Her slippers are gone, the matches unsold. She lights them, and with every flame a door opens. In the glow of the matches, it is not just warmth that awaits. Encounters await: with herself, with her mother, with her father. What appears behind the doors is neither a vision nor a consolation, but a conversation that was long overdue.
The production takes Andersen’s fairy tale as its starting point for a story about what is passed down between generations: not as a heavy burden, but as a game with an open ending. The roast, the tree and the festive gathering are merely a backdrop here for something greater: the desire to be seen.
- Fairy tales for EVERYONE – suitable for ages 4 and over
IN GERMAN