by Georg Büchner

Premiere on 19.2.2010, Staatsschauspiel Dresden

Idleness is rampant in the kingdom of Popo. Leonce, Crown Prince of Popo, counts grains of sand and practises spitting on stones, while his father, King Peter of Popo, forgets the affairs of state while philosophizing. Only the arranged marriage between Leonce and the unknown Princess Lena from the neighboring state of Pipi brings life to the mini-state and allows the prince to flee to Italy with his friend and soulmate Valerio. On the run, he meets a beautiful stranger: Princess Lena, who has also fled the wedding. The two fall head over heels in love and decide to marry. They return home in disguise and only realize after the wedding ceremony that they have ended up in the very life they were trying to escape from.

The revolutionary Georg Büchner, who was wanted for his pamphlet “Der Hessische Landbote” and died in exile at the age of just 23, not only wrote a cheerful satire on romantic ideas in “Leonce and Lena”, but also a cynical commentary on the conditions of his time: absolutism had outlived itself, the German empire was disintegrating into numerous small states, the aristocratic class was passing the time while the people were suffering from hunger. “I believe we must let this outdated modern society go to the devil,” he wrote to his friend and publisher Karl Gutzkow. But the revolution had failed and there was no change in sight.

Büchner gave this situation of stagnation, loss of utopia and lack of prospects the cheerful mask of a “comedy”, as he called the play. Society is a roundabout, there is no way out, and the next generation will do no better ... The situation is hopeless, but not serious!

with: Thomas Braungardt, Mila Dargies, Stefko Hanushevsky, Matthias Luckey, Ahmad Mesgarha, Karina Plachetka, Helga Werner

Direction: Sabine Auf der Heyde

Stage: Ann Heine

Costumes: Johanna Pfau

Music: Jacob Suske

Dramaturgy: Felicitas Zürcher

Photos: Matthias Horn