In the organizer's words:

In the middle of this season, Lev Tolstoy's "War and Peace", one of the most important works of world literature, will be staged as a large ensemble production at Central. Using the original text, Armin Petras has written a play for the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus that condenses the exuberant original into an intense five-hour theatrical experience. On a spatial stage designed by set designer Karoly Risz for the Central, 13 actors embody more than 35 characters from the impressive social panorama at the time of the Napoleonic Wars at the beginning of the 19th century.

The opposing concepts of war and peace mark two ends of a scale on which people's lives have always been played out. The text explores the question of how war manifests itself in the political and private spheres and thus reaches far into our conflict-ridden present.

At the center of the plot are the three families of the scheming Prince Kuragin, the old-fashioned aristocratic Marshal Rostov and the strict Prussian Prince Balkonsky. Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a rich dignitary and salon hero of the old days, establishes the connection between these three families in the course of the plot: he is a friend of the young Prince Andrei Balkonsky, is won over by Prince Kuragin as a husband for his daughter Hélène and finally marries Natalija Rostowa. He also acts as a link between the warring parties: initially a fervent admirer of Napoleon, then an observer on the battlefield at Borodino, he is taken prisoner by the French, accompanies the retreat of the Grande Armée and is only freed by a partisan raid. "For Tolstoy, Pierre Bezukhov embodies the search for the truth of life; because he cannot decide which path to take, he experiments with life only to fail again and again," writes the well-known Tolstoy translator Barbara Conrad.

The production is directed by Tilmann Köhler, whose work is characterized by a great love of storytelling and a high level of political awareness. He has directed Shakespeare and Fallada, among others, at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus.

The ticket price includes refreshments and a drink during the interval.