Bernd Lafrenz at the ZMF 2026

ROMEO & JULIA freely adapted from Shakespeare (with the Musikverein Riegel) Who doesn't know the most beautiful and at the same time saddest of all love stories? And anyone who knows Bernd Lafrenz also knows that both handkerchiefs and Reclam notebooks can be safely left at home. In his affectionate parody, Bernd Lafrenz lends "Romeo and Juliet", one of his freely comical Shakespeare productions, that very special, light and airy charm with which he has already delighted and taken his audiences by storm in other plays (Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear). The musical accompaniment is provided by the Riegeler Musikverein.
As in other adaptations, Lafrenz, who has won several awards, plays the complete story of Romeo and Juliet as a highly virtuoso one-man play, in which he often switches from one character to another with playful ease within seconds. But Lafrenz would not be Lafrenz if he were simply to retell the famous story! And so the audience first gets to know the endearingly lisping Balthasar, proud owner of the bicycle courier company "Internationale Kurierdienste Balthasar (seit 1423)" and descendant of Romeo's servant of the same name. For eleven generations - since 1423 - the Balthasars have been fulfilling Romeo's legacy: spreading the story of the two lovers throughout the land. But everything turns out quite differently than Balthazar had planned, because the Shakespearean work and its characters suddenly come to life in a magical way. Together with Balthasar, the audience suddenly finds itself right in the middle of the "thing of yesteryear", experiencing the whole story of "Mr. Romeo" and "Miss Juliet" firstly live and secondly on location. And when the audience, torn between fascination and laughter, witnesses two wonderful theatrical deaths at the end of the drama, performed in true style with twists and turns, this is also touching and funny at the same time - Balthasar makes sure of that. In any case, it is a crowning finale to one of those rare, royal evenings of theater that make you not want to go home at all.