Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life

Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?

Cast

Alice Krige Lisa Benjamenta Mark Rylance Jakob Gottfried John Herr Benjamenta

Daniel Smith Kraus

Joseph Alessi Pepino

Jonathan Stone Hebling

César Saratxu Inigo Peter Lovstrom Jorgenson

Uri Roodner Schilinski

Peter Whitfield

Metadata from the source database.