Dantons Tod

At the end of the 18th century, the French people no longer felt represented by the rulers. This led to revolutions and counter-revolutions. Today, in times of immense crises, demands for change, upheaval, for new models are emerging. Does democracy offer room for radical change or do we need a rebellion, even a new revolution? Who were the leaders and how far were they willing to go to turn utopia into reality?

These are precisely the questions that the young writer, medical student and political activist Georg Buchner poses in his first drama, Dantons Tod, in 1834. The play is set against the backdrop of the French Revolution, which, after the utopian energy of the early days, has lost its innocence and is separating the "good guys" from the "bad guys" with extreme harshness. Buchner focuses on the last days of the revolutionary leader Danton, who, tired and disillusioned, concludes that any striving for a better world must inevitably fail. Opposing him is Robespierre, who still believes in a new, virtuous human being, even if this can only be achieved with endless bloodshed. Out of deep despair, Buchner asks: How is it that a once promising movement comes to such a hopeless standstill? Are there only pleasures left that make one forget one's own mortality for a moment? He looks with horror at the symbol of revolution, the guillotine, and asks: "What is it that leers, murders, steals within us?"

Director Robert Borgmann shows with a young generation of players how difficult it is to step out of the private sphere in our time of radical individualism, to take to the streets and form a community, let alone unleash a revolution. Characteristic of our world is frantic stasis, a sense of paralysis in an accelerating world. What opens up on stage is a labyrinth of voices, assertions and contradictions in which everyone – audience and players alike - searches for a way, loses themselves and (hopefully) finds themselves again.