Stolz und Vorurteil

In the organizer's words:

Play based on the novel by Jane Austen

Based on a version and concept by Anna Malena Große
For ages 12 and up
Guest performance by the Staatstheater Darmstadt

Five sisters in the country. Due to the rules of inheritance, their only chance to save themselves from financial ruin and social decline is to find wealthy husbands. But there are hardly any available bachelors - until the rich gentlemen Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy turn up at a ball. While the eldest sister Jane and Mr. Bingley seem to be made for each other, the encounter between the second eldest sister Lizzy and the taciturn and unwilling-to-dance Mr. Darcy is less harmonious ...

Jane Austen's cult novel has become a symbol of idyllic aristocratic country life and well-tempered romantic feelings, not least thanks to its extremely successful film adaptations. The text is also an astute observation of the economic pressures on love and the brutality of a society in which one faux pas at the ball can ruin an entire life.

And while Lizzy Bennet and Mr. Darcy are still in the process of finally finding each other, in Anna Malena Große's play development the wedding carriage turns towards the present: the director approaches the cult novel as a contemporary testimony to an era full of upheavals, which is the beginning of our capitalist, globalized present. Enriched by historical source material, she traces the effects of the upheavals of Jane Austen's time right up to the present day and asks what love stories our time needs.