The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

In the ‘Kitsch und Kunst’ boudoir/ateljé of successful fashionista Petra von Kant, only beauty is allowed. The countess’s relationships with her faithful and adoring maid Marlene, with her submissive bestie Sidonie, with her excitable daughter Gabi and with her distant mother Valerie are established, exploitative, and comfortable. But soft! What light from yonder window breaks? It is the East, and Karin is the disrupter! From love at first sight, though jealousy, conflict, music, and yes, floods of bitter tears, can the course of love run true? Can Petra can pull herself out of her spiral of alcoholism and despair, and reboot her relationships with the women in her life, or lose everything…?

This 1972 play is said to have been Fassbinder’s update to Thomas Mann’s classic ‘spring & autumn’ romance Death in Venice. It is a tale of love as mismatched as CarolOrlandoThe Duke of Burgundy, or Anaïs in Love, where the power imbalance switches, and switches, and switches again. Who has the whip hand? How can such an odd couple find any kind of balance? And can anything lasting come out of it? 

CAST
Petra – Elizabeth Whitney 
Marlene – Evelina Califano
Karin – Georgia Younger
Sidonie – Delphine Laniesse
Gabi – Esteri Hellgrén
Valerie – Jessica Calonius

Written by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Translated by Anthony Vinis
Director – Matthew Paines
Costumier – Joette Crosier
Stage manager – Magdalena Grajcar
Photography – Anni Taponen

PRESENTED BY: The Finn-Brit Players

SHOW DATES

  • Sat 11 May 2024 @ 2 pm
  • Sat 11 May 2024 @ 7 pm
  • Sun 12 May 2024 @ 2 pm
  • Fri 17 May 2024 @ 7 pm
  • Sat 18 May 2024 @ 7 pm
  • Sun 19 May 2024 @ 2 pm

DURATION: 2 hours and 30 minutes (inc. a 15-minute intermission)

AGE LIMIT: 15+

22.00€ – standard
17.60€ – students, retired, unemployed
17.60€ – FBP, FINNBRIT, SHT & Internations members

SCHEDULE
The doors will open 30 minutes before the start. Please arrive in good time – due to the setup of the stage, latecomers cannot be admitted.

Photo: Anni Taponen

Presented by arrangement with Nordic Drama Corner Oy