The Robbers (Die Räuber)

"Fie! Fie upon this weak, effeminate age, fit for nothing but to ponder over the deeds of former times..."
Two unequal siblings. The older, more attractive child, and the father’s favourite, enjoys the freedoms and excesses of student life. The other child sits at home, ugly, unloved and dissatisfied. It wants what the other has and schemes against the firstborn. The strategy succeeds and the father rejects his favourite. Angry and desperate, this child now turns its back on the establishment and its conventions and founds a gang. But the anarchists become radicalised and commit crimes. Their leader wants to escape, but a return to society is no longer possible...
Joanna Praml explores Friedrich Schiller’s first work from the perspective of the young actors: What will we do for parental love – and for freedom and self-development? What kinds of catastrophe can trigger sibling rivalry? What does it mean to live in a parallel society? What leads to radicalisation and when does opposition turn into terror?