1955: the German film director Ernst Marischka shoots his first Sisi film. In her role as Elizabeth, the future empress of the Hapsburg Empire, Romy Schneider, then only sixteen, became world-famous at a stroke. When she died tragically in 1982 she had still not been able to rid herself of the sentimental image of the innocent and high-spirited girl this part had given her.
1972: the Italian director Luchino Visconti shoots Ludwig, on the life of Ludwig II, the supposedly mad homosexual king of Bavaria. Ludwig was played by Visconti's favourite, the actor Helmut Berger. Visconti manages to persuade Romy Schneider to step into Sisi's shoes once again.
In Starnberg. Sisi, When a Fairytale Comes True the author and director Rudi Meulemans presents not only Sisi and Ludwig on stage, but also the actors who portrayed them on the silver screen. The fairytale world in which Sisi and Ludwig escape reality turns out to have many similarities to the tinsel facade in which the lives of the film stars are enveloped. Starnberg is the name of the village and the lake in Bavaria where Sisi and Ludwig met and where Ludwig's body was found in 1886. Together with the permanent core of actors at De Parade, Meulemans gives theatrical shape to this story about the labyrinth of fiction and fact into which Sisi and Ludwig, Romy and Helmut run, get lost and meet their doom.
1972: the Italian director Luchino Visconti shoots Ludwig, on the life of Ludwig II, the supposedly mad homosexual king of Bavaria. Ludwig was played by Visconti's favourite, the actor Helmut Berger. Visconti manages to persuade Romy Schneider to step into Sisi's shoes once again.
In Starnberg. Sisi, When a Fairytale Comes True the author and director Rudi Meulemans presents not only Sisi and Ludwig on stage, but also the actors who portrayed them on the silver screen. The fairytale world in which Sisi and Ludwig escape reality turns out to have many similarities to the tinsel facade in which the lives of the film stars are enveloped. Starnberg is the name of the village and the lake in Bavaria where Sisi and Ludwig met and where Ludwig's body was found in 1886. Together with the permanent core of actors at De Parade, Meulemans gives theatrical shape to this story about the labyrinth of fiction and fact into which Sisi and Ludwig, Romy and Helmut run, get lost and meet their doom.
text, direction Rudi Meulemans
with Tom de Hoog, Johan Heestermans, Caroline Rottier, Andreas Van de Maele, Hilde Wils
dramaturgy Marianne van Kerkhoven
lights Arne Lievens
costumes Filip Eyckmans
with the support of Kaaitheater
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