FEDORA - The True Story of King Kong

Presentation

Together, librettist and stage director Roscha A. Säidow and composer Jeffrey Ching create a unique contemporary music theatre piece, which perfectly combines the power of opera and puppetry. By fusing the two art forms, this interdisciplinary work allows their separate media of expression to reinforce each other. The protagonists of the iconic 20th-century myth »King Kong« stand before a mystic tribunal with a god-like judge who tries to discover the true circumstances of the jungle king’s death. Säidow and Ching treat the big themes in a highly allegorical way: power, misuse of power, Western cultural hegemony and, not least, love. The story is told on two levels: During the trial, the characters – sung by opera singers – tackle their past. On a second level, the past is shown in parallel through puppetry. Huge marionettes on long strings try to find their way through the story. The opera singers lend their voices to the puppets, which represent their former selves. Still, the puppeteers visibly animate the puppets. Singers and puppets are confronted with each other as symbols of the unchanging past.

Artistic Team

"The True Story of King Kong" is a collaborative project written by German writer and stage director Roscha A. Säidow and Philippine-born Chinese-British composer Jeffrey Ching. Roscha A. Säidow will stage »The true story of King Kong« in collaboration with Julia Plickat (stage design), Kerstin Schmidt (costume design) and Magdalena Roth (puppet design). The four women have been working together on several projects, which have been highly acclaimed by public and press. The well-established composer Jeffrey Ching joins this young emerging creative team.