Der ewige Soldat
(The Wandering Soldier)

Genre: theatrical guided tour (one-man-show) by Dominique Caillat.

Location: Ehrenbreitstein fortress, Koblenz.

Summary:
“I am but a memory that will not die“, says the wandering soldier, standing on a hill high above the Rhine and the Mosel, a place marked by nature and by fate. The public listens in awe and soon follows him through the ditches, tunnels and cells of the great fortress, listening to 1000 years of dramatic history, as seen from the eyes of a common soldier. Middle-Ages, 30-Year war, Napoleonic occupation, Prussian drill, World War I and II – he has seen it all in Ehrenbreitstein and can testify about glory, violence, oppression, suffering, love and hope, about great deeds, treachery, victory and defeat. He knows of the humble beginnings – a little wooden tower at a hilltop, and of the proud days, when the fortress became the largest of its kind in Europe, only to be degraded after losing its strategic importance. In the end, its large walls provided a humid, cold shelter to millions of war refugees.

Production:
Script and direction: Dominique Caillat.
Performers (in rotation): Andre Wittlich, Boris Weber.

Producer: Generaldirektion kulturelles Erbe Rheinland-Pfalz.

Dates:
May until Oktober:
Saturday-Sunday: 5:45 pm
Length: 90 min.

Information and tickets: 0261 66 75 40 00

 

Reviews:

“A very special theatrical “guided tour”. Hope and glory, war and disaster: 1000 years of History told in just 90 fascinating minutes – a great one-man-show.”
(Rheinzeitung Feuilleton)

“Action and glory, misery and destruction, told by in 90 minutes by the 'wandering soldier', literally walking through a thousand year of history. Author and director Dominique Caillat has made it possible… History is economically and all the more effectively dramatized in a series of compact scenes… A little shuddering is part of the package: Caillat provides the corpse of the fortress, makes refined use of light and darkness, and the stones are alive with murmurs and whispers.”
(Rheinzeitung Koblenz)