The scientist Prospero, who devoted himself to study and the arts rather than ruling as Duke of Milan, was usurped by his brother, cast out to sea with his young daughter Miranda, and washed up on an island. Like many of Shakespeare's magical landscapes, the island serves as a testing ground and playground for newcomers. A place where man can begin anew far from civilization: the power and impotence of the human mind in its struggle with nature, of which he is a part. And all this against the dark backdrop of colonization.
In The Tempest, all of Shakespeare's major themes are gathered again. With the help of the airy spirit Ariel, Prospero conjures a storm that brings all his enemies – his treacherous brother and his allies – to him as shipwrecked souls and allows him to escape the murder plot of the poetic monster Caliban. Miranda, who has seen little of the world beyond the island, falls in love with one of the shipwrecked: Ferdinand, Prince of Naples. If Prospero, who also acts as director of his own past and future, were to forgo his revenge, the island romance would be a first step towards a general reconciliation. Shakespeare's 37th and final play, with its poetic playfulness, its desire to explore the world, its rawness, and tender melancholy, is also a legacy and a farewell from one of the greatest theater figures.
The Tempest is performed in a celebrated version at the Burgtheater Vienna by Joachim Lux for three actors, each of whom also embodies other characters – and in which, among others, Joachim Meyerhoff took part.
Performing are Johanna Engel, Christina Weiser - who will join the ensemble of the Zimmertheater permanently from the next season at the Staatstheater Kassel - and Bernhard Hurm from the Theater Lindenhof.
Prospero/ Bernhard Hurm
Trinculo
Ariel/ Christina Weiser
Ferdinand/
Stefano
Caliban/ Johanna Engel
Miranda
Direction: Thomas Bockelmann
Stage: Birgit Angele/Sabine Böing
Costumes: Ulrike Obermüller
Sound design: Jens Kilz
Dramaturgy: Dr. Stefan Tigges/Michael Volk
Choreographic and musical collaboration: Olatz Arabaolaza and Jel Woschni
Technical team: Alexander Schwab, Mike Michelius, Mia Zilk
Photos: Patrick Gerstorfer
Video: Joachim Schmid
Publishing: Rowolht Theater Verlag
Thanks to the Friends' Circle for financing the stage design.
Premiere: May 2, 2026
Performances: May 9, 16, 17, 21; June 4, 13, 25; July 3, 4, 16, 17, 18
Each at 8 PM, introduction at 7:30 PM
Zimmertheater im Löwen (Kornhausstraße 5)
What the press says:
"Reutlinger Generalanzeiger, 04.05.2026, Burlesque-melancholic 'Tempest'
by Christoph Ströhle
"A slide leads in from above and provides particularly the whirling Ariel with energetic appearances. [...] The costume changes (costumes: Ulrike Obermüller) [...] are minimal. It is above all their acting that changes in the embodiment of another character. It’s not just the body language that is different. Weiser suddenly speaks with a Hessian accent as Stefano. While Hurm, who just sensed a dawn as Prospero, gives an Swabian twang to the court jester Trinculo, who is out to kill Prospero, in the next moment. Weiser and Hurm wonderfully fill these burlesque roles (and also the serious ones) and bring the premiere audience to laughter on Saturday night. [...] Shakespeare has masterfully commanded the shift between lofty tones and coarse comedy. 'The Tempest' is considered his legacy and farewell as a playwright. [...] The Tübingen production does justice to this with thoughtful substance and overflowing playfulness. The production [...] manages to orchestrate poetic playfulness, a desire for world exploration, rawness, and melancholy artfully, thus providing good entertainment. [...] It is well brought out, despite all the streamlining, that Prospero acts as director of his own past and future. And that he embodies a man who reveals the ignorance of a colonizer towards Ariel and especially towards the enslaved Caliban. He then also incites the shipwrecks to revolt against Prospero. Johanna Engel is strong in this role (and as Miranda)."
Schwäbisches Tagblatt; 04.05.2026; Prospero in a bathrobe
by Peter Ertle
“Much essence [...] and beautiful acting theater. [...] Bernhard Hurm is suitable for Prospero partly due to the parallel of an actor who has most of his professional life behind him, but above all because of the combination of delicacy and leading role that has always been present in him. With great nuances in the back and forth of wanting and hesitating, pauses, counterplay of gesture and word, up to a shaking of the head that ultimately experiences an unexpected twist with a final 'Yes!'. In terms of the differentiation of soul movements, Hurm has found his counterpart: Christina Weiser also gets to shine with an unmistakable touch of comedy in all her roles. As Ariel, she constantly pulls on enchanting threads or imaginary strings, as she actually consists more of waves, air currents, frequencies. At times, she seems like the stage embodiment of an animated figure. As Stefano, she is allowed to become quite earthy. And the torn, but ultimately not completed murder act on Prospero could have come from a Buster Keaton film. [...] This was mainly about compressing the play and acting art. Both succeeded.”
DER VENTILATOR ENTFESSELT. Shakespeare's "Tempest" - in Tübingen 04.05.2026
by Michel Laages (critic for nachtkritik, Deutschlandfunk, etc.)
"Quite effortlessly, without tricks and showmanship, the transformations work in 'The Tempest' from Tübingen (where a fan virtuously plays the wind machine); Johanna Engel (who begins as a wild Caliban being) merely needs to take off the old hippie parka and place a flower crown on her head - she is already daughter Miranda. Christina Weiser, who initially 'blows' in as Ariel down a slide like on a playground onto the stage entirely lined with silver aluminum foil by Birgit Angele [...], undergoes the transformation to Prince Ferdinand entirely through her own body; and even as the magic spirit Ariel, she shapes the 'magic' that can transform air into music and bring the island world to sound, solely with a gentle choreography of her hands. When she later transforms into the drunken Stefano (and empowers herself to assassinate the island ruler Prospero), she only needs the base cap and the linguistic switch to the Hessian dialect, which is the closest to her biography...
Here we reach the most charming magic of the short evening - it comes from the language personally. For Bernhard Hurm, co-founder of the free ensemble project 'Theater Lindenhof' in Melchingen on the Swabian Alb and highly esteemed Holderlin specialist, presents a Prospero who could also be a village elder in Burladingen or elsewhere. The longing for revenge of the betrayed, banished former ruler appears here in a decidedly non-ruler bathrobe (which Ulrike Obermüller dressed him in, Thomas Bockelmann's lead costume designer already in Kassel); and that in Hurm, Prospero’s understandable revenge ultimately (and even more understandably) transforms into grace and forgiveness is the most natural thing in the world. [...] By the way, to see Shakespeare's 'Tempest' in Tübingen, the audience first walks into the outdoor venue of the 'Zimmertheater': into the 'Löwen', a little further up in the old town, still behind the town hall and market and opposite the city museum. 'Im Löwen' was once a cinema and even before that the synagogue; for the theater, it is - alongside vaults and 'chamber' stage - the third and (with 99 seats on the first floor of the historic building) the largest performance venue. The applause is hearty, the audience [...] pleasantly concentrated on the matter. Bernhard Hurm (the 'Lindenhof', whose co-founder he was, recently received the Theater Prize of the Federal Government) is a theater person of the finest folk theater sort, Johanna Engel is a favorite with the audience (she is currently also performing 'Prima Facie' by Suzie Miller), and Christina Weiser will also be warmly embraced by all in Tübingen from now on."
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If you have any questions, our team at the theater box office is always available:
Phone: 07071 92 73-33
E-Mail: tickets@zimmertheater-tuebingen.de
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