BUDDENBROOKS

In the organizer's words:

BUDDENBROOKS
based on the novel by Thomas Mann, adapted for the stage by Bastian Kraft

"I believed ... I believed ... there would be nothing more," young Hanno justifies himself when confronted by his father, Senator Thomas Buddenbrook. His provocative conclusion to the end of the sacred family chronicle becomes reality, at the latest, in the fateful personal and economic transgressions of the generation of siblings Thomas, Christian and Tony Buddenbrook.

"And often the outward signs of advancement appear only when in truth things are already going down again." Thomas Mann's novel, published in 1901 with the subtitle "Verfall einer Familie," describes the beginning of an upheaval in upper-middle-class structures through precise character drawings and a style marked by irony. Mann drew inspiration for "Buddenbrooks" from his own family history in Lübeck and from people in Munich, where he lived at the time. However, Mann shows with much humor in the relationship between Tony Buddenbrook and the Munich hop merchant Alois Permaneder that such north-south connections can be quite complicated.

As an epochal work, the family novel questions the relationship between tradition and generation and the patterns of outwardly stable family structures when traditional certainties begin to collapse. Thomas Mann's debut novel, which won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1929, is an international bestseller. Director Bastian Kraft is known for his multimedia and concentrated adaptations of literary classics. From the point of view of the youngest member of the family, Hanno, his adaptation focuses on the imminent turn of the times, crumbling privileges and the questioning of time-honored certainties: is it possible to better understand ourselves through the people who came before us?

Artistic direction

Production Bastian Kraft
Stage Peter Baur
Costumes Jelena Miletić
Music Jonathan Emilian Heck
Lighting Verena Mayr
Video Sophie Lux
Dramaturgy Ilja Mirsky

Price information:

10€ for students