Play based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque
1914: 19-year-old Paul Bäumer and his classmates have their high school diploma and eagerly enlist for service in the First World War, spurred on by their class teacher. Paul survives four years in constant face of death – everything seems to be coming to a good end, but fate has a different plan. Paul Bäumer falls in October 1918 – on a day that was so calm and quiet across the entire front that the army report limits itself to the sentence “Im Westen nichts Neues.”
His novel named after this report catapults Erich Maria Remarque to instant fame in 1928: young blooded men, exposed to a hell of artillery fire, trenches, and gas attacks, report ruthlessly about the everyday life of war. They describe the traumatic shift between idle boredom and deadly combat, between patriotic hero myth and loneliness, between speechlessness at home and camaraderie in the field. Without transition, horror stands beside meaninglessness, the scent of a roasted pig next to torn bodies...
“We are waging war against ourselves. Every shot that hits strikes one of us." – Paul in the play
Even today, the questions of young soldiers are as relevant as they have been for a long time: Why is someone declared my enemy, whom I don't know, who doesn't know me? How can one find a place in society again after the war? What happens when the societal consciousness of the importance of war gradually disappears? How fragile is our peace when war is simply taking place in another location?
Remarque's novel swiftly became the anti-war novel of the 20th century, a powerful plea for peace. Hope, solidarity, community break through. “Filmed by Hollywood, burned by the National Socialists, Im Westen nichts Neues is among the most read books of all time,” writes the Staatsschauspiel Dresden.
“Now I see that you are a human being just like me.” – Paul in the play
Motif © a.gon Theater GmbH Munich
With:
Thorsten Nindel Father, Major, etc.
Lukas Leibe i.V. Paul Bäumer
etc.
Direction: Johannes Pfeifer
Set design: Steven Koop
Costume design: Anna Determann
Stage adaptation by Jürgen Apel and Dieter Powitz
Production by a.gon Theater GmbH Munich
IMPORTANT Notes:
Also in the theater subscription with 5 plays:
Sun., October 13, 2024: “MOBY DICK!” - Play in an adaptation of the world novel by Herman Melville
Sat., December 7, 2024: “ACHTSAM MORDEN” – Crime comedy based on the bestseller by Karsten Dusse
Sat., February 1, 2025: “A Long Day's Journey Into Night” – Play in 4 acts by Nobel Prize winner Eugene O’Neill
Sat., March 22, 2025: “Im Westen nichts Neues” – Play based on Erich Maria Remarque
Sat., April 5, 2025: “Avanti! Avanti!” - Comedy by Samuel Taylor with Stefanie Hertel
Pre-registration for subscription and individual tickets gladly at Tel. 09831/508-109 or -300
Information subject to change, errors excepted
https://www.gunzenhausen.info/theater_konzerte_eventsDoors open at 18:30