Nibelungen Cycle

The New York performance artists Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska founded the Nature Theater of Oklahoma in 2006, with which they have performed at numerous major theatre festivals around the world. The theatre company applies a very innovative approach which combines opera, dance, theatre and film in its productions.
For their latest production “Nibelungen Cycle”, the artists have ventured out to small communities in the rural countryside of the Rhine-Neckar region in search of theatrical inspiration. In some 20 villages and towns, they have been developing performances and live events which featured their “outside” perspective on German traditions, values and lifestyles. The “Nibelungenlied” represented the common thread on the journey through the region, which prides itself as being the original setting of parts of the saga and markets itself as such to tourists. The heroic German saga served as the guiding principle behind this artistic quest, as it touches on Hollywood-like, but serious issues such as courage, risk-taking, responsibility and loyalty, and the question of how to live one’s life when one’s destiny is “larger than life”.
The artists have documented the different stages of their four-week bike tour on film and in an Internet blog, and, together with the residents of the Matchbox communities, ultimately produced a new version of the heroic epic. Performances and stories served as the basis for an epic cinematic work which went on tour at film and theatre festivals.

Artistic directors: Thomas Kraus, Florian Malzacher
Artists: Nature Theater of Oklahoma (US)

Performance Venues:

Worms, Lorsch, Einhausen, Bensheim, Hemsbach, Weinheim, Mörlenbach, Rimbach, Lindenfels: 1 – 27 Sep. 2015 + summer 2016 for screenings of the finished film