Michaela Kohlhaas

»His sense of justice made him into a robber and a murderer.« That’s how Heinrich von Kleist describes the horse dealer Michael Kohlhaas in his eponymous novella, a man who goes on a bloody rampage of revenge after suffering an act of injustice. Two hundred years later, his actions serve as inspiration and instruction for Michaela Kohlhaas: mother of two, wife, and assistant manager of a cemetery. Driven by her own experience of injustice and powerlessness, she decides to rebel. But whereas Michael Kohlhaas murders and pillages, Michaela acts primarily with words: with exaggeration, swearing, sabotage, and show. Like a supposed witch, she drifts through the countryside cursing and cussing. And she comes to the conclusion that being a woman is all downsides. Resisting also has its downsides. But even though the whole world declares her mad, she continues toward her end »with flags waving«, hoping for a happy end but sensing that she might not be so lucky.

Heike Geißler’s Michaela Kohlhaas is a daring rewriting of the famous novella by Heinrich von Kleist. Her Michaela is a cursing, stinking, delicate figure. A woman who loves deeply and who doesn’t just want improvement – she wants compensation and atonement. And an entirely different way of organising the world.