by Karst Woudstra
German by Barabara Buri and Maria von Loe
Direction: Thomas Ostermeier

After a premiere at the opera, a small but illustrious group meets in a villa in Potsdam belonging to the politician Siegfried Wallrabe and his wife Martha. The catering service has made a break for it before the real work starts – all except for the student Clemens Hacke. The guests talk about money, cul-ture, politics and sex. And although the topics of conversation are gradually exhausted by the early hours of the morning, no one feels like going home. They settle down to spend the night on armchairs, chairs or the floor. But even the next morning, the guests – compelled by an inexplicable force – are unable to leave the house. They thus remain captive in the villa for sev-eral days and nights. Little by little, the situation becomes increasingly un-bearable.

Karst Woudstra, born in Leiden in 1947, started to work in the theatre in the late seventies, first as a translator of Ibsen, Strindberg and, primarily, Lars Norén. Woudstra has also worked as a dramatist since 1981, and he is now one of the leading figures in the Dutch theatre - a director, translator and playwright.