Schachnovelle - Schedule, Program & Tickets

Elegant cruise luxury meets the drama of the game of kings: On a cruise from New York to Buenos Aires, a group of passengers try to persuade the self-important world chess champion Mirko Czentovic to play a game of chess. Czentovic wins the first game easily and the revenge also seems hopeless for the group at first - until the mysterious Dr. B. intervenes and forces a draw. The Austrian emigrant then reveals his secret: taken into solitary confinement by the National Socialists, Dr. B. regained his mental freedom by secretly studying a chess textbook. Will the game against Czentovic take him back to the time of his imprisonment?

An initially harmless game of chess reveals psychological abysses and becomes a metaphor for isolation under National Socialism, for the abuse of power, inner turmoil and the attempt to protect one's own mind from the outside world. Zweig's "Schachnovelle" was written in exile in Brazil between 1941 and 1942 and is the writer's painful reminder of the loss of his Austrian homeland.

In her production, director Alexandra Liedtke interprets the chessboard as a symbol of the world in which every action is followed by a reaction from the other person. As a counterbalance to the intellectual escapism, a musical layer tells of the characters' mental and emotional flight from reality. An interdisciplinary poetic journey through time for all generations.

Subject to change without notice.