Dantons Tod

Danton's Death by Georg Büchner
Duration and Breaks: 2 hours – no intermission

Violence as a means of politics is back in vogue. "Whoever prevents me from defending myself kills me as surely as if they attacked me," says Robespierre. "Where self-defense ends, murder begins," responds Danton. How should the French Revolution continue nearly four years after the storming of the Bastille? Should it be transformed into a republic that allows people all freedoms to live their lives, to seek happiness, or to starve? Or must the revolution continue as a dictatorship until social equality is finally achieved, even if the reign of terror claims many more lives along the way?

In Danton’s Death, which deals with the indictment, arrest, and execution of the former revolutionary leader Danton and his followers by his former comrade-in-arms Robespierre, the focus is on the devastation that violence leaves behind in both victims and perpetrators, in thought and feeling, and how it destroys spaces, possibilities, alternatives, freedom, equality, and brotherhood—and certainly not sisterhood. It is a perverse and cruel game that the two opponents play with themselves, with the community, and with the future, which is our past and present.

Program and cast

Director: Johan Simons
Set and Video: Nadja Sofie Eller
Costumes: Greta Goiris
Music: Mieko Suzuki
Lighting: Friedrich Rom
Dramaturgy: Sebastian Huber

Nicholas Ofczarek – George Danton
Felix Rech – Camille Desmoulins
Johannes Zirner – Lacroix
Maximilian Pulst – Philippeau
Michael Maertens – Robespierre
Jan Bülow – St. Just
Ole Lagerpusch – Prompter
Annamária Láng – Julie
Marie-Luise Stockinger – Lucile
Andrea Wenzl – Marion