2 Gents (UA) at Nationaltheater Mannheim

Friendship or love, city or country, loyalty or betrayal - Shakespeare’s early comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona is characterized by opposites. Ballet Intendant Kevin O’Day takes up these themes in his own telling of the Shakespeare play.

The two friends Valentine and Proteus leave their humble and quiet home in the country and throw themselves into the exciting life of the big city with great expectations. Overwhelmed by all these new impressions, they are unfortunately seduced by the promises of the city, lose their inner balance, betray their own principles, and even turn against each other in jealousy. Only a grotesque confrontation in the forest opens their eyes. Thereby represents the journey of the young friends most of all symbolically for one thing: a journey into one’s own soul.

After Romeo and Julia (2011) and Othello (2013) Kevin O'Day completes his Shakespeare trilogy in Mannheim with 2 Gents. Supported musically by Thomas Stiffling, this opera house production is his second composition commission he has developed after R.A.W. in 2012. Together with a large live band, he expresses and develops the contrast between the country and the city as a fusion of folk music and urban sounds.