Winnetou I – The Elspe Upgrade

 

Old Shatterhand (Thomas Koziol) and Winnetou (Jean-Marc Birkholz) / Photo: KARL MAY & Co. – Margref]

 Karl May & Co.

June 24, 2026

New costumes, completely new stage design, new actors and many innovations in the libretto: "Winnetou I – Chief of the Apaches" will be an upgrade of the Karl May Games Elspe.

At the press conference today, the Elspe Festival presented the first half of the new production of May's classic to the media representatives and it quickly became clear that director Marco Kühne has left little of his father Jochen Bludau's old book untouched. The production begins with an acoustic introduction by Winnetou, followed by a look into Karl May's library and the statement "It will be allowed to dream for two hours."

What follows is the story of how Karl May becomes Old Shatterhand (Thomas Koziol), who opposes the plans of Santer (Friedrch Grud) and his gang and therefore later in the play also frees the prisoners Winnetou (Jean-Marc Birkholz) and Nscho-tschi (Sarah Gösser). This does not bring him luck, because at the end of the first half he is knocked down by Winnetou during the attack of the Apaches and Kiowas.

This is also new: For the first time, two trunks can be seen. The Apaches under the leadership of Chief Intschu-tschuna (Stefan Kieper) and the Kiowas under Chief Tangua (Sebastian Kolb). Both chiefs fight a great duel to clarify whether there should be peace or war.

The cloverleaf with Sam Hawkens (Matthias Schlüter), Dick Stone (Markus Lürick) and Will Parker (newcomer from Burgrieden: Michael Müller) has received significantly more text than in the earlier productions. All three also harmonize very well with each other. The ensemble is completed by Miranda (Tina Mester) and engineer Brancroft (Oliver Fleischer); this role used to be as a sheriff. The character is still drunk all the time.

The new stage design is impressive with a large saloon, the village over several levels, an imposing pueblo and retractable additional backdrops in front of the waterfall. The programme booklet already shows that Karl May's library is not the only one.