Amerika - Schedule, Program & Tickets

Kafka calls his first novel hero Karl Roßmann a "modern David Copperfield". The 16-year-old is sent to America by his parents. Like so many people, he is supposed to build a new life here. But he does not make a career from "dishwasher to millionaire". On the contrary: his own gullibility, unfortunate circumstances and injustices plunge the boy into increasingly hopeless situations. He becomes the pawn of his environment, and all efforts to take his fate into his own hands remain unsuccessful.

"America" is a story of emigration and at the same time an anti-educational novel: someone seeks his fortune in the New World and becomes a nobody. In ludicrous adventures, Kafka describes his hero's social decline and humorously and sarcastically dissects the American dream. He tells of being a stranger, of losing the world and of the existential search of a homeless person in the modern world. In many respects, "Amerika" is an exceptional case in Franz Kafka's work. As Max Brod reported, the author himself was convinced "that this novel was more hopeful and brighter" than anything else he had written. "Amerika" was published by his friend Max Brod in 1927 after Kafka's death.

Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was plagued by self-doubt throughout his life. This insecurity is also reflected in his texts, which often tell of absurd, confused and grotesque events. His style cannot be assigned to any literary epoch or movement and is considered unique. Kurt Tucholsky on Kafka's great "Amerika" novel, which he himself called "Der Verschollene" in his diaries: "Here is the very rare case of someone not understanding life and being right."

Georg Schmiedleitner was co-founder and artistic director of the Theater Phönix in Linz from 1989 to 1996. He has worked as a freelance director since 1996. His production of Shakespeare's "Richard III" at Theater Regensburg was nominated for the German Theater Prize "Der Faust" in 2022. In 2014, he staged "The Last Days of Mankind" for the Salzburg Festival.

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