The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

Synopsis

Petra is a woman in control - a successful fashion designer who lives with her slavish, suffering assistant Marlene. But when Petra meets beautiful Karin - part protégé, part pet, she falls hopelessly in love with her and the power of the relationship begins to shift. The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant is a modern tragedy of power, desire and obsession. Sometimes surreal, expressionist and dreamlike.

Our Review:

11 December 2007

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s all-female story about power, desire and obsession in the fashion world is best known from his own highly wrought 1972 film version. Here in a new contemporary translation by David Tushingham, this claustrophobic chamber piece seems a curious choice for Yvonne McDevitt’s site-specific production, which is staged not in the normal auditorium at Southwark Playhouse but next door in the cavernous spaces of the railway arches below London Bridge Station. The show – literally and metaphorically – leaves one cold.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant revolves around the eponymous fashion designer (played by Sasha Behar) whose public success contrasts with the miserable failure of her private life. Having just left her second husband, she falls in love with young model Karen (Naomi Taylor), who becomes the muse for her new range for a top fashion label. Though celebrated in the media, Petra enters an alcohol-fuelled downward spir...

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