In the organizer's words:

play

based on the exile novel "Veritas verhext die Stadt" by Maria Lazar | world premiere
In German language

Anonymous messages keep a small town in suspense. Who is behind it? A guilty party is quickly found and a veritable witch hunt begins. Truth is manipulated, the town society can no longer get a grip on the hate speech and threatens to break apart. "Veritas" - meaning truth - is written under the anonymous messages that various residents of a small Danish town suddenly receive. Rumors, threats, even murder charges are doing the rounds. Like a digital oracle, Veritas is turning people against each other. Someone is playing a dangerous game here. When a first victim dies, a criminal investigation begins - who is behind the inflammatory messages? An individual or even a group? In this crime thriller, director Katharina Kohler shows a society caught up in the networks of social media - between likes and lies, bullying and courage. She makes it clear how quickly digital words can become real injuries and how difficult it is to keep calm when hatred is louder than reason. Linguistic boundaries are crossed without hesitation, inhumane derailments destabilize the discourse, the rhetorical effect triumphs over the truth and ends in a criminal act. Maria Lazar (1895-1948) first published "Veritas verhext die Stadt" in 1931 under the pseudonym Esther Grenen. As an Austrian-Jewish writer and playwright, she had to flee from National Socialism in the 1930s and, like many other persecuted authors, was only able to pursue her literary activities anonymously (if at all). In addition to Maria Lazar, Christa Winsloe, Hilde Rubinstein and other forgotten authors will have their say in an audience introduction and tear away the veil of oblivion. Katharina Kohler has been an assistant director at the Schauspiel since the 2024.25 season. Following previous successful work in the "Into Cold Water" series, she is continuing her work on political themes. The Nationaltheater Mannheim sees itself as a training company and enables assistants to direct their own productions under professional conditions. This content has been machine translated.