Oh God, holy shit: the parable of the ring.

A blended family at the time of the religious crusades in the melting pot that is Jerusalem. Wise Jewish merchant Nathan discovers that his house has been burnt down and his stepdaughter Recha has barely escaped death. During the search for Recha’s saviour – and amid power struggles plotted by various religious groups – Lessing has Nathan tell the parable of the ring as an allegory on tolerance and humanity which demonstrates through metaphor how schisms that seemed deeply entrenched can quickly be resolved. What a magnificently utopian idea …

After her 2020 production of Schiller’s The Robbers, Joanna Praml now stages Lessing’s last play at Junges DT and explores connections between his dramatic poem and the lives of the young people in the ensemble. What do you believe in more: God or money? Who do you pray to when you are in danger? How can we stop defining ourselves through difference and damn well celebrate social diversity at long last? And is enlightened reason really the answer to all problems?

With the kind support of the K. S. Fischer Foundation