28.10. Heike Geißler, 6:00 p.m.

“His sense of justice turned him into a robber and a murderer.” So writes Heinrich von Kleist in his novella of the same name about the horse dealer Michael Kohlhaas, who exacts bloody revenge after suffering an injustice. Two hundred years later, his campaign of vengeance still serves as a model and guide for Michaela Kohlhaas, an assistant cemetery administrator.
Fueled by a deep-seated sense of arbitrariness and powerlessness, she becomes a rebel. Yet while Michaela Kohlhaas murders and pillages, she acts primarily with words: through escalation, exaggeration, sabotage, and spectacle. Like a supposed witch, she roams the countryside cursing and casting spells. And she comes to realize: It is a disadvantage to be a woman. It is a disadvantage to fight back. Yet even if the whole world declares her insane—she marches “with banners flying” toward her fate, hoping for a happy ending, yet sensing: There may not be such an ending after all. Heike Geißler’s *Michaela Kohlhaas* is a daring reimagining of Heinrich von Kleist’s famous novella. Her Michaela is a scold, a foul-mouthed woman, a tender soul. A great lover who does not merely seek improvement—she demands restitution and atonement. And a completely
different order of the world.

Host: Svenja Reiner

In cooperation with the Arbeitnehmerkammer Bremen.