Keeping Up With the Penthesileas

A Quasi-Mythological Remythification by Mateja Meded & Thomas Köck

more than 3000 years ago, penthesilea lives with the amazons in a matriarchy. once a year, men are invited to the reproductive rite, the male offspring are immediately sorted out and used as compost, the female descendants are raised to be warriors.

more than 3000 years later, kris jenner, "the momager", has raised her daughters to be highly artificial, highly sexualized icons and amazons of digital and aesthetic capitalism, the fashion & advertising world. "the most successful & hottest" matriarchy of late capitalism.

the men play a rather subordinate role in the female karadashian clan - or they stand out. for example rob kardashian, the brother of the siblings: he dances "optically" out of line. "momager" kris' ex-husband bruce jenner is now caitlyn jenner & kim kardashian's ex-husband kanye west doesn't seem to have come out of the relationship unscathed either. while countless ex-boys and husbands of the sisters end up in rehabs and psychiatric wards, the kardashian empire is growing. it comes across as zeitgeisty: from healthy lifestyles as a product to gestures of feminist empowerment. The kardashians manage to turn everything into a product.

in the new play by thomas köck and mateja meded, the kardashians meet penthesilea and her amazon tribe. the central questions are: is there a true feminism in a false patriarchy? is there real empowerment beyond advertising and product placement in capitalism? what does visibility mean and for whom? what is the myth of self-made women & the survival of the fittest influencers - and all this in times when solidarity is written small and digital mob behavior is written large.

Language German & English

Performing rights Suhrkamp Verlag AG Berlin
With support of  Österreichisches Kulturforum Bern