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Reviews

LA TRAGÉDIE DE CARMEN / Buxton International Festival and Norwich Theatre Royal, UK
“Katharina Kastening was in her element with La tragédie de Carmen producing a fast-moving, intimately scaled version of music theatre.“
- Michael Cookson, Seen and Heard International

“Chilling brechtian severity“
“Raw and revealing“
“Katharina Kastening‘s stage direction […] allowed the fast-rising Irish mezzo Niamh O‘Sullivan to deliver a mocking, chameleon-like and enticingly sung Carmen - very much all things to her needy men - and a striking, unusually self-doubting Escamillo from Steffan Lloyd Owen“.
- Richard Morrison, The Times, 4 stars

“Buxton’s director, Katharina Kastening, […] adds her own gloss by looking at female stereotyping as the underlying theme.“

“We’re invited to ask whether [the femme fatale] concept can ever justify male violence.”
- Robert Beale, Theatre Reviews North

“In this version of the classic opera, directed by Katharina Kastening, clever on-stage costume changes draw attention to Carmen as the ‘femme fatale’, but also offers a new perspective of this complex character as a victim.”

“captivat[ing] from start to finish”

“The opening night set high standards in what is set to be a fantastic three weeks of events.”
- Derby Days Out

“Full marks to director Katharina Kastening, and to the on-stage cast of five, for delivering such a powerful and passionate version of this much-loved tale.”
- David Auckland, Outline Online

MANRU / Opera national de Lorraine, Nancy

“This production from the Opéra national de Lorraine is co-produced with the Oper Halle, where it premiered last year and was awarded the FAUST Perspective-prize. British director Katharina Kastening's staging is absolutely convincing in its modernity: the action and the relationships between characters are impeccably intelligible, the direction of the performers is detailed and always significant, and the transposition to our time is accomplished without any tacky excesses“.

“Confronted with an unknown title, audiences often tend to be cautious… It would be a great mistake to deprive oneself of the many pleasures that ‘Manru’ offers, especially in a production that is so successful on all levels.”
- ConcertClassic.com for ‘Manru’, Laurent Bury 

“The staging delivers many solutions to depict these two worlds which are fiercely opposed to each other yet live so close to one another, and ultimately forces them to confront each other. For Paderewski, the challenge was to go beyond the text of the libretto and to reach the universal. Katharina Kastening and her team succeeded in this challenge, using scenes vandalism and lynching to set up the drama of such xenophobic and racist behaviour that still continues to this day. The simple set design and scenery - a glass wall that divides the revolve in two, the house, a shadow dream sequence during Manru's fever dream - contribute to a perfect readability of the plot and offer a final scene as striking as the score, where the enemies are reunited in mourning and absurdity.“
– Forum Opera for ‘Manru’, Yannick Boussaert

“[Katharina Kastening's]direction, essentially centred on the suffering of the two outcasts torn between two worlds where they no longer have a real place, also highlights the ambiguity of Hedwig and Urok, characters torn between their love for Ulana and the ancestral values of their community.”
“The staging is served by a high-flying stage, made up of performers who are totally invested in a project in which everyone clearly believes.” 
“The chorus of the Opéra national de Lorraine […] stand out in […] this perfectly framed performance, memorable as much for the music as well as the effectiveness of the staging and the homogeneity of a cast without weaknesses.”
“The enthusiasm of the audience, at the end of a performance lasting more than three hours, is a fine tribute to a gamble that ultimately succeeded.“
– Olyrix for ‘Manru’, Pierre Degott

“For this discovery of a little-known work, director Katharina Kastening made the pertinent choice of scenographic and narrative simplicity. Gideon Davey's set materialises the barrier between the two communities through a high plexiglass wall, the result of human industry, under which an earthy ground revolves. Ulana and Manru's hut is also formed of plexiglass, open to all eyes and vandalised with xenophobic slogans. The direction clarifies behaviours that are sometimes badly justified by the libretto. From the rigidity of the mother Hedwig to the ambiguous suffering of Urok, from Manru's inner doubts to Ulana's amorous impulses, from the glee of the parties to the outbursts of violence, everything is rendered with naturalness and authenticity.”
– ResMusica for ‘Manru’, Michel Thomé

“The themes of xenophobia and racism are more topical today than ever. This is shown in this timeless production […]. Kastening portrays Manru as an outcast. The distrust of otherness, both among the villagers towards the outsider Manru, and among his people towards Manru when he returns, is central to her work."
"Although Paderewski's opera is understandably unlikely to find its way into the mainstream operatic repertoire, Opera Nancy is certainly to be congratulated for this production, which is fully convincing both musically and scenically."
– Klassik begeistert for ‘Manru’, Jean-Nico Schambourg

“Katharina Kastening, […] highlights the universal and timeless character of the rejection of ‘the other’, and these hateful villagers who vandalise the house of the cursed couple with “On est chez nous" and other phrases, which inevitably and sadly remind us of current political situations.”
“The idea of splitting the couple’s house, with the two parts moving apart as Manru's separation from Ulana becomes ever more present, is a beautiful one.”
– Classique News, for ‘Manru’, Emmanuel Andrieu

“Katharina Kastening's direction, attentive to each of the protagonists, very intelligently emphasises the contrasts [between the two societies] and focuses in great detail on the individual acting as well as the vivid crowd scenes.”
– Premiere Loge, Opera for ‘Manru’, Marc Dumont

BRONTË / Grimeborn Opera Festival, Arcola Theatre

“The whole undertaking of a premièring such an involved work with limited resources and theatre space is highly ambitious and director Katharina Kastening has achieved a remarkably successful production that deserves wider acclamation.”
– Marc Aspen for ‘Brontë’

“Katharina Kastening’s stylish […] production”
– Julia Rank, The Stage, for ‘Brontë’

DER GOLDENE DRACHE / Oper Halle

"The renunciation of a naturalistic setting corresponds to the aesthetics of the opera. The fact that director Katharina Kastening clearly assigns the individual places of action in the large factory space clarifies the sequences despite rapid scene changes, as does her precise Personenregie, which is clearly aligned both with the music and the possible conflicts."
– Junge Welt for ‘Der Goldene Drache’, Kai Köhler

"Katharina Kastening [...] adds another level of exploitation with a focus on consumption and capitalism."

"Kastening accentuates the comic parts in the first half of the play in the direction of the characters, which is acknowledged by the audience."
–Theater der Zeit for ‘Der Goldene Drache’, Thea Plath

“The production deals with the precarious working and living conditions of migrants in Germany in a very impressive way.”

"This interpretation of "The Golden Dragon" highlights the brutal effects of the failed integration of the siblings in drastic images and texts."

"It is very impressive how the production characterises the 'ant'. In her, a figure becomes visible in which the frightening banality of exploitation is concretely shown."
– Transit Magazine for 'Der Goldene Drache', Hauke Heidenreich

MANRU / Oper Halle
“Katharina Kastening succeeds in cleverly using simple means, such as an emerging double of the protagonist and child, oscillating light reflections and stage rotations at the right moment with astonishingly hypnotic liveliness.”

"The walls are threateningly smeared with the words "Gentiles" and "Gypsies", a direct reminder of the defilement of Jewish shops and homes during the Nazi era. Moreover, the problematic term "gypsy" used throughout the libretto is deliberately kept in and is scenically well justified in the production." 

"Performances like this show that even outside the canon, there are still impressive works to be discovered that should by no means be forgotten."
– Concerti for ‘Manru’, André Sperber

“Katharina Kastening dispenses with all the folkloric and village ornamentation and separates the others an opaque, milky disc that set designer Gideon Davey cleverly installed on the almost empty revolving stage. No one sees behind the pane, no one knows the other. The villagers celebrate. What happens behind them remains closed to them. This is how exclusion occurs.”

“Kastening presents all of this unadorned and stringently, in the choral scenes quite bravura and convincingly modern, including the hallucinations which Manru experiences after Ulana tries to bind Manru to herself through the use of a love potion. His fever dreams, in which he constantly sees a Manru double with his little daughter are effective.”
– Opera Lounge for 'Manru', Rolf Fath

“[Manru] celebrated its premiere at Bühnen Halle on Saturday, directed by Katharina Kastening. The ethnic conflict between sedentary and traveling people, […] was wisely not specifically defined in the production." […] Assimilation , let alone integration: none of this was wanted. It had to end tragically, and the world remains stupid."
– Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung for 'Manru', Christiane Wiesenfeldt

DER KARNEVAL DER TIERE / Oper Frankfurt
”In the next few weeks, an imaginative and inventive production that manages to capture the essence of the work {Karneval der Tiere} by the director Katharina Kastening can be seen on the Oper Frankfurt website. It skilfully uses the currently very familiar digital-perspectives and visual illusions without ever encroaching on the cosmos of the 14 short pieces of music of the animals’ performances. “
– Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung for 'Der Karneval der Tiere’, Axel Zibulski

“Lovingly staged by Katharina Kastening with an ironic wink, actors from the opera were transformed into charmingly costumed (Christoph Fischer) animal mythical creatures in a refreshing manner.”
– Online Merker for ‘Der Karneval der Tiere’, Wolf-Dieter Peter

“A hare or hippopotamus cavorts next to elephants, mice and all kinds of reptiles wriggle impatiently in garish costumes and masks in the stands. Katharina Kastening intelligently combined the narration and the score.”
– Opera Online for ‘Der Karneval der Tiere’

'“This is a successful recording with which Designer Christoph Fischer and director Katharina Kastening skilfully overcome all current visitor bans”
– Neue Musikzeitung for ‘Der Karneval der Tiere’, Gerhard Hoffmann

MANON LESCAUT / Oper Frankfurt
”Àlex Ollé transferred the piece into the immediate present. The Revival Director, Katharina Kastening, uses this to naturally integrate hygiene requirements for combating Corona into the events on the stage. In the first act the customers of a café wear everyday masks, the waiters also wear a face visor, and there is a disinfectant dispenser at the entrance of a hotel - This does not look like a foreign body imposed by the health department, but like an exact mirror image of the current situation in the country. {...}. The movements and interactions are always fluid and natural during the entire performance, so that the corona adjustments are not experienced as deficits .”
– DerOpernFreund.de for ‘Manon Lescaut’

OUR BABY / Bread and Roses Theatre, London
“The director, Katharina Kastening, varies the tone and pace meticulously and uses the small stage to excellent effect”.
– John Morrison from The Guardian for ‘Our Baby’

“The moments of affection between the pair are a beautifully painted and director Katharina Kastening brings a real tenderness to the story”.
– London Pub Theatres for ‘Our Baby’, Sian Rowland

"Kastening's use of stylised slow - almost stationary-movement is reminiscent of Lars von Trier's Melancholia, where a young bride's unhappiness flies in the face of others' contentedness. 4 stars".
– Female Arts for ‘Our Baby’, Michael Davis

Linguistic Fluency:  English (mother tongue), German (mother tongue), French (working knowledge), Italian (working knowledge), Dutch (beginner)

Education:
MA in Text and Performance (Specialising in directing) at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and Birkbeck, University of London. 

• Directing credits within course: Richard III by William Shakespeare,  A Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht, Fear and Misery in the Third Reich by Bertolt Brecht, Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo, Slaughter by Heiner Müller, The Lady from the Sea by Henrik Ibsen

• Dissertation: A thirty-minute piece exploring colourblind casting, culture and identity in performance – a compilation of Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange and Buffini’s Welcome to Thebes

BA (Hons) in Drama and Theatre Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. 
International Baccalaureate at Frankfurt International School, Graduation in 2012.

Memberships/Networks

-       Young Vic Young Directors’ Program Genesis Network
-       Stage Directors UK