Das grosse Heft

Premiere 18/October 2017
Final show 21/May 2018 

Somewhere in Hungary, probably. It’s wartime and bombs are falling on the cities. In her despair, a mother brings them to their grandmother, who’s been decried as a witch. »Sons of beasts! I will show you how to live,« she promises the twins. From now on Lucas and Claus are on their own, and confronted with the adult world disinhibited by war, in which death and crime are part of everyday life. They grow up together, developing their own strategies to survive emotionally and physically – until they’re finally separated due to the turmoils after the war, Lucas escapes from a country that’s now turned totalitarian. Ágota Kristóf tells the two brothers’ paths through life from different perspectives. Her trilogy of novels narrate a grand tale about exile and the state of being uprooted. The twins become a symbol of inner turmoil and loss of identity, belonging, home.

Based on the novels* by Ágota Kristóf Le grand cahier (1986), La preuve (1988), Le troisième mensonge (1991)

*original © Édition du Seuil, Paris
The play premiered on 18 October 2017 under the title Hundesöhne (Sons of Dogs).

Photo: Esra Rotthoff
Stage photos: Ute Langkafel