Das große Heft

In the organizer's words:

based on "Le Grand Cahier" by Ágota Kristóf
Director: Karin Henkel

Two brothers, twins, are taken from the city to live with their grandmother in the country. It's war, the city is being bombed. "I'll show you how to live!" says their grandmother, who is commonly called "the witch" in the village. She calls her two grandsons "sons of dogs" - the children cannot expect affection and tenderness from her. Almost left to their own devices, they have to learn how to survive in a world of violence, hunger and misery; how to become insensitive to mental and physical pain; how to beg, lie, steal and kill. There is no play in this world; everything is training for the real thing, for the decision about life and death. The twins collect their experiences in a large notebook. Ágota Kristóf invents a unique language for this, which has made her world-famous as an author: the children recount their everyday life in the war in an analytical, observant and cold way. The feelings triggered by the stories are all the more oppressive.

With: Nils Kahnwald, Kristof Van Boven and Julia Wieninger

Dancers: Sabine Molenaar and Maria Carolina Vieira

Contemporary witnesses: Lissy Benischek, Annelise Bischoff, Harald Hirsch, Helmut Huber, Marione Ingram, Dieter Klemenz, Christa Reimann and Walter Zadra

Director: Karin Henkel
Stage: Katrin Brack
Costumes: Nina von Mechow
Music: Arvild J. Baud
Lighting: Holger Stellwag
Dramaturgy: Maria Sophie Nübling and Christian Tschirner

Further information: Das große Heft | Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg