Spiritus Vitae – The Breath of Life

Spiritus Vitae – The Breath of Life

Shakespeare frankfurt proudly presents

spiritus vitae
the breath of life

Spiritus Vitae – The Breath of Life was born from the desire to create art during a time when traditional theatre, and the creative outlet it provides for cast, crew and audience alike, was unavailable to the world. Our cast and crew all worked for free, and the very limited budget went entirely into the production. Only a couple of rehearsals and one afternoon of filming per scene – and we are extremely proud of the result. Like so many other performing arts entities we offer this for your free viewing pleasure – but would be most grateful if you could consider supporting us with a donation. If you have any questions regarding your donation, please contact Varvara Pomoni

the story behind the film

During the summer of 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic, Shakespeare Frankfurt worked diligently on a special project. As we could not walk our audience through our regular Shakespeare play in the Botanischer Garten Frankfurt, as we do every summer, we decided to bring the garden and Shakespeare to them. Starting in May we selected scenes we felt could work. Given that the content is Shakespeare, there was no shortage of pieces to choose from, however we needed to keep it to a few.  We started rehearsals in June, and then spent almost every Sunday from July through August filming one scene each day, using only natural light and the time we had until sunset to breathe life into eight different moments depicted in Shakespeare’s work. All of the artists volunteered their time on this project. We hope you love this film as much as we enjoyed making it.

Meet our

Cast & Crew

production team
click for roles & bios
cast
click for roles & bios

TRAILERS

press

August 20, 2020 | Botanischer Garten Frankfurt wird zur Filmkulisse Die Theatercompagnie “Shakespeare Frankfurt” geht mit einer Collage aus Stücken neue Wege.

Read the full article (German).

photo gallery

with gratitude

This film would not have been possible without the support and collaboration of the Botanischer Garten Frankfurt and its Freundeskreis, Michael Heipel and Jim Reed of Contentivity, and the beautiful photography of Stephan Junek. We are so thankful for your enthusiasm and willingness to be a part of this special project. 

“Be thou assur'd, if words be made of breath,

And breath of life: I haue no life to breath

What thou hast saide to me.”

- Gertrude, Hamlet (Act III Sc 4)