Caligula

In the organizer's words:

Caligula
by Albert Camus

The emperor mourns. Caligula is regarded as the hope of the Roman Empire, a conscientious young ruler with the best of intentions. But the death of his beloved sister Drusilla plunges him into a deep crisis. "People are dying, and they are not happy," he states dryly. However, this simple realization expands into a fundamental questioning of human existence, morality and society. What is the point of our striving? And what meaning can an omnipotent ruler find in his actions? His arbitrary rule becomes a radical experiment in striving for the impossible, which reveals the madness of absolute power. Thus he gives his enemies more and more reason to plan his assassination.

Arbitrary rule is booming again these days. We are experiencing a comeback of autocracy. Behind the political dimension in Camus' play, however, there is always an existential dimension. He himself described his first drama as a "tragedy of knowledge". Camus, like Caligula, shatters all illusions. The theatricality and mask-like nature of society are exposed time and again, while the emperor presents himself as a total director and yet behind the mourning figure is a deep longing for an unattainable freedom, a way out of the absurdity of the world.

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