Der Untergang des Hauses Usher

Edgar Allan Poe dedicated his work “to those who feel rather than to those who think — to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams as in the only realities …”. He writes about schizophrenic daydreamers and hypersensitive murderers, about obsessed lovers and obsessive hysterics. His heroes lure us to places of fear and terror, to that terra incognita between life and death. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER is widely regarded as the epitome of his particular brand of horror. The melancholy recluse Roderick Usher devotes himself exclusively to poetry and music, together with his dearly beloved twin sister, Madeline. A childhood friend visiting them at their house immediately notices a crack in the wall upon arriving. One stormy night, he witnesses the house’s demise, which is inextricably linked with the mental breakdown of its tormented inhabitants.

Barbara Frey – theatre director, musician and, as of this year, artistic director of the Ruhrtriennale – takes the audience on a multilingual, musical journey into the mind of the great US American master of the grotesque. Her staging of Poe’s THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER features actors and musicians from London, Budapest and Vienna.