Friedrich Dürrenmatt's black comedy about the ingenious physicist Möbius and his selfless yet futile attempt to hide himself and his potentially destructive knowledge from the world is still the play of the moment more than sixty years after its premiere.
The physicist Johann Wilhelm Möbius has discovered the world formula, the ultimate explanation of all physical phenomena. But because he knows that his discovery could mean the destruction of the world if it falls into the wrong hands, he hides himself and his knowledge. He lives in seclusion as a supposed madman in a mental sanatorium in Switzerland. But even there, there is no escape: his two roommates, who claim to be Einstein and Newton, are in fact secret agents sent out to find Möbius and win him over to their side. Two murders call the police into action, whose investigations threaten to bring Möbius' secret to light. And the director of the sanatorium is playing her own perfidious game, which Möbius only sees through far too late.
When Dürrenmatt wrote his play in 1961, nuclear technology was still in its infancy and the Cold War was heading towards a dangerous climax. For the first time at this time, there was an awareness that from now on the end of the world could lie in the hands of man himself, whether as a result of active action or as a result of a loss of control over his own technology. Dürrenmatt's play portrays man as a being full of shortcomings, confronted with a world that is constantly becoming more and more technological and has long since become too complex to comprehend. Over 60 years later, technology has advanced even further, the world is changing at breakneck speed and climate change is making itself felt. In this respect, the dark comedy has lost none of its topicality.
- Tickets are available in advance at www.ticket-regional.de and at the usual advance booking offices. The box office opens at 7 pm. Due to energy-saving measures, the temperature in the Stadttheater is limited to 19 degrees Celsius.