Penthesilea

by Heinrich von Kleist

English translation by Joel Agee

UK Premiere

Boy meets girl. Girl eats boy. A goth and gory myth of gender war, culture clash and lethal love.

The Amazons are at war. Their objective: Abduct men and procreate with them. Queen Penthesilea's heart and arrow are aimed at Achilles, who is her match in fury and determination. He wins, letting her believe she is the victor, as he is willing to play the game of love by her rules. As the tides of war unveil the truth, wounded Penthesilea's wrath knows no boundaries…

Heinrich von Kleist's classic play in an acclaimed new translation by Joel Agee.

Production Information

Playwright: Heinrich von Kleist
Translation: Joel Agee
Season: 2013
Status: UK Premiere

Critical Reception

Here is Penthesilea, one of the great plays: epic and painfully intimate, immediate and eternal, endlessly elusive and shockingly abrupt, a tragic masterpiece about gender, desire, history, myth, and war. I don't believe there's an English-language version of the play--or of any of Kleist's plays--comparable to this new translation by Joel Agee. It seems to me pitch perfect in its sensitivity to Kleist's irony, his complexity, his icy, tormented passion. A work of literature in its own right, Agee's text is also, perhaps best of all, dazzlingly stageworthy.
Tony Kushner, author of "Angels in America"

★★★★★
Gripping theatre that explores passion, gender roles and power play. I felt myself leaning closer towards the characters faces, as they drew me in with their well timed humour, percussive rhythms and moments of shock. I'd urge anyone to go discover this thought provoking classic for themselves.
ThreeWeeks