Stefan Zweig's 1939 classic, Beware of Pity, has been a firm favourite in the shop for years, and we're excited to be partnering with Complicite to host a livestream of their forthcoming stage adaptation when it is performed at the Barbican next month. You'll be able to watch the performance live on your computer or mobile device at 3pm on Sunday 12th February, so mark it in your diaries now!
From Complicite:
Simon McBurney directs the outstanding Schaubühne ensemble in a vivid account of a young man’s slide into a terrible situation, his struggle to extricate himself from it raising questions of consciousness and compassion.
Young officer Hofmiller commits a faux pas at a soirée held by a Baron, unwittingly asking his paralysed daughter to dance. The mistake pulls him into a relentless train of events in this devastating depiction of honour, love and betrayal, realised against the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – a catalyst for the outbreak of the First World War.
Two of Europe’s most boundary-pushing, imaginative theatre companies work together at the Barbican for the first time. Their co-production is based on Stefan Zweig’s 1939 novel, written just before the Second World War but looking back to the verge of the previous disaster. Reverberating in the past and present, the story is relayed in German by seven actors, swapping narration and dialogue to vocally build the tension of McBurney’s orally rich, visually eloquent production.
Beware of Pity follows the five-star triumphs of The Encounter and The Forbidden Zone, the last shows presented here by Complicite and the Schaubühne respectively.
Check out the trailer below, and if you weren't among the lucky few to get your hands on a ticket then be sure to head back here on February 12th for what promises to be an unforgettable performance!
[Edit: The livestream will be available on this page from 3pm on Sunday 12th February.]
