Das kalte Herz

In the organizer's words:

by Wilhelm Hauff

Peter, like his father and his father's father a coal burner in the Black Forest, can no longer stand the fact that everyone else around him is "so inhumanly rich" while he remains what he is. His thoughts on how this could change take an unexpected turn: he learns that as a Sunday child he can visit the little glass man who lives deep in the Black Forest. He has three wishes with him. How simple that is!

But Peter's wish to always have as much money as the successful Ezekiel turns out to be a bad speculation: Peter takes Ezekiel's money when he throws the dice. Until neither of them has a thaler left. And Peter is left with empty pockets.
Peter wants to take his anger out on the little glass man. But where the little glass man is, the Dutchman-Michel is also waiting nearby as an unscrupulous wish-fulfiller for all those who are driven by greed. A living heart in exchange for unlimited credit is Dutchman Michel's business model. Peter agrees and from then on wears stone instead of heart.
His ascent begins. Until he realizes: Almost no one around him still has a heart. But: Peter still has one wish for the little glass man ...

The Black Forest in Wilhelm Hauff's "The Cold Heart" is a legendary enchanted forest. A place where wood is turned into coal and glass - and into money and success. A factory of dreams of rapid advancement. Everything the heart desires is traded - happiness, greed and entire lives. A very grown-up fairy tale about beautiful appearances and a heart of stone.

Hauff's "The Cold Heart", published in 1827, unfolds this tale in fascinatingly dark, luminous language. Director Enrico Lübbe brings it to the stage of Schauspiel Leipzig in large images - in a team with set designer Etienne Pluss, costume designer Bianca Deigner and Leipzig jazz musician Philip Frischkorn, who accompanies the production live on the grand piano.

Read more: The Cold Heart | Schauspiel Leipzig