Die Physiker

Comedy in two acts by Friedrich Dürrenmatt
In cooperation with Abattoir Fermé / Belgium

"It's the end of the world as we know it."

Before the world goes mad, would you rather go mad yourself and be admitted to a psychiatric sanatorium? Especially if you are an eminent scientist with groundbreaking research results to show for yourself, which could mean the end of the world if they fall into the wrong hands. The Swiss playwright and master of the grotesque Friedrich Dürrenmatt plays with nothing less than the possibility of catastrophe in his two-act play The Physicists from 1962, which became a hit with audiences during the Cold War and is once again full of topical relevance today. The nuclear physicist Möbius plays the insane patient and voluntarily admits himself in order to save his research. But who would expect the secret service to be there, waiting door to door for the moment to strike? Möbius meets two fellow patients in the sanatorium, his fellow scientists Einstein and Newton. Patients, researchers or agents? Real or fake? The confusion begins. Because only those who are convincingly crazy can stay in Fräulein Doktor Mathilde von Zahnd's madhouse. Between unbridled comedy and sheer horror, Möbius, Einstein, Newton, the medical staff and the police debate their way into a truly tricky situation ...
They will stop at nothing and are prepared to walk over dead bodies ...

Stef Lernous is a director, actor and author. He founded the Belgian theater ensemble Abattoir Fermé in 1999 and has since produced more than 70 productions. He teaches at the acting department of the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema & Sound in Brussels and writes for various theater magazines. 2020 also saw the release of his film Hotel Poseidon, which was shown at festivals in Canada, USA, UK, Puerto Rico and Italy. In Germany, he works at the Theater Freiburg and the Berliner Ensemble, among others. He can be seen in Kassel in Die Verwandlung.