Der zerbrochene Krug

In the organizer's words:

A comedy classic by Heinrich von Kleist

Especially recommended for secondary school pupils and evening audiences

"I cannot report here who broke the jug,
Secrets that are not my property,
I, a total stranger to the jug, must touch."

Young Eve is in distress. Her fiancé Ruprecht is to be sent on a dangerous war mission. Village magistrate Adam could save him and has used his position to sexually harass Eve. Surprised by Ruprecht, he jumped out of the window, injured himself and broke Eve's mother's jug in the process. She is now on trial to bring the culprit to justice and suspects Eve's lover Ruprecht. While Eve remains silent and Ruprecht contradicts her, Judge Adam sits in judgment of himself, so to speak. No lie is too infamous for him to dismiss the guilt and turn the situation to his advantage. For on this day, the work of the village court is also being examined by an official body.

Who do we give power to in our society? How can we make the mechanisms of power transparent? Do young people have a chance in this system? And is there any interest in enforcing justice in society as a whole? LUTZ Kleist's comedy classic about the abuse of power, sexual coercion and a society that supports all lies approaches these questions. In the mirror of current tendencies to spread lies in the media as truths, to make courts dependent on politics and to cement patriarchal power relations, the laughter gets stuck in everyone's throat. After all, Kleist's text still seems highly topical over two hundred years after its publication.