Leonce und Lena

In the organizer's words:

LEONCE AND LENA

after Georg Büchner

Age recommendation: from 14 years

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

It could be a Shakespearean comedy, 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 full of unplugged abysses into which the reader, actor or director constantly falls and at the bottom of which the great questions of humanity sparkle: who, why, where.

"How a voice has sounded to me in the deepest depths, And 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 sense and nonsense of existence, doubts 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 hidden between the jokes and puns.

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

The royal comedy is followed in the course of the season by Büchner's dramas about the proletarian Woyzeck and the French revolutionaries in "Danton's Death" and continues the examination of his poetic existential questions in other milieus and staging styles.

Takeover of the Theater Basel production

Artistic direction

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

Price information:

from 10€ for students