Ewelina Marciniak works in Thalia Theater again

The Polish director Ewelina Marciniak has a knack for powerful representations of female lives on stage. Her production of “The Maid of Orleans” was invited to Theatertreffen Berlin, her staging of “The Boxer” at Thalia Gaußstraße earned her the German theatre award Der Faust. After the successful premiere in Cracow she prepares Elena’s Ferante adaptation My brilliant friend specially for the German audience. Premiere : 28 th of September.

Elena and Lila have known each other since childhood. Both were born in 1944, into large working-class families living in the impoverished and rough neighbourhood of Rione in Naples. Both excelled at schoolwork, but only Elena was allowed to continue her schooling. She gets engaged to the son of a professor and becomes a successful writer, while fearless, passionate Lila marries at 16. Her husband is a braggart who is involved in dealings with the Camorra. Children are born. Relationships fail. Success and failure come and go, but their friendship endures. Our production of the best seller novel by Elena Ferrante concentrates on the late 1970s, during which the two friends, both in their late 30s, take up the struggle for workers’ emancipation, women’s rights, and the fight against the Mafia.

“In Naples, you have to be very lucky not to come into contact with violence. My feeling is that the whole world is Naples, and, at least, this city never tried to hide its true face.” - Elena Ferrante.

More details:

https://www.thalia-theater.de/en/play/meine-geniale-freundin-2023