LEONCE AND LENA
after Georg Büchner

7 pm Introduction

The story is seemingly quickly told: A prince and a princess from neighboring kingdoms flee an arranged marriage, fall in love incognito, and try to determine their own path in life by means of a ruse - only to discover in the end that they have fled into the arms of their predetermined fate. So far, so clear.

It could be a Shakespearean slapstick, a parody of Goethe's "Werther" and the monarchical system, a study of youth and boredom. On closer reading, however, one realizes that there are strange gaps, cracks and empty spaces between the lines of text - and that the characters themselves are also full of unplumbed abysses into which one constantly falls as a reader, actor or director, and at the bottom of which the great questions of humanity sparkle: who, why, where.

"How a voice has sounded to me in my deepest inner being, and has swallowed up all my memories at once."

Georg Büchner's "Leonce and Lena" begins as a seemingly classic comedy of mistaken identity, but ends as a strange dream play about the meaning and nonsense of existence, doubt about reality, and the longing to transform oneself into an automaton. It is a free flight into nothingness, full of sadness and double meaning, with crystal-clear sentences of innocent wisdom hiding between its corny jokes and puns.

House director Thom Luz makes "Leonce und Lena" the starting point for a foray through Büchner's cheerfully despairing cosmos and makes his own way through the labyrinth of mirrors between the throne room, the dance hall and the madhouse.

In the course of the season, the royal comedy will be followed by Büchner's dramas about the proletarian Woyzeck and the French revolutionaries in "Danton's Death", continuing the examination of his poetic questions of existence in other milieus and staging styles.

Artistic direction

Production and stage Thom Luz
Musical direction Mathias Weibel
Costumes and lighting Tina Bleuler
Dramaturgy Katrin Michaels