by Daniel Kehlmann
based on the book 'Voyage of the Damned' by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts

"Outstanding premiere [...] The applause after more than two hours of intense and grandiose play was long - and it must continue loud and clear, because the plight of the refugees is not over with the end of the performance." (NWZ)

A ship with over 900 refugees wanders across the ocean, no country wants to take them in. Returning to their home port would be tantamount to disaster. But the ship is not off the coast of southern Europe, but off Cuba in 1939, and the passengers on the St. Louis are Jews fleeing Nazi Germany with the last of their belongings. When North America also denies them entry due to a game of political intrigue, the ship is ordered to return to Hamburg. On board, the situation comes to a head as the fugitives are exposed to the hopes and fears as well as the National Socialist sentiments of some crew members. Only after a radical threatening gesture by the captain, who wants to save the refugees, do some European countries offer quota regulations.

Daniel Kehlmann has turned the book 'Voyage of the Damned' by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts into a gripping, breathless play that tells the historically documented odyssey of the St. Louis and the stories of the people on board.