Der blinde Passagier

In the organizer's words:

The stowaway

by Maria Lazar

The action of the play takes place on board a Danish packet boat trading on the nearby coasts. Shortly before departure, a man jumps into the harbor basin to save himself from his pursuers. Carl, the captain's son, protects the stranger by hiding him in the hold. But the presence of the fugitive, who soon turns out to be a Jewish doctor, cannot be concealed on the small boat for long...
Sartre's famous postulate "Hell, it's the others" can thus be applied to the forced community on board, as the discussion very quickly turns to how to "deal" with the stowaway - with the concepts of protection, loyalty, betrayal and fidelity undergoing various surprising and explosive re-evaluations.
Maria Lazar (1895-1948), a Jewish author and exile whose work was forgotten for a long time, has finally been rediscovered recently, thanks in part to the publishing house "Das vergessene Buch". Her plays are very different, but they are all united by their straightforward language and subtle characterization. The Stowaway is probably "(...) her most mature and at the same time her most depressing play" (Simon Strauß, "Wenn ein Schicksal an Bord geht").