There is a plague in Thebes and with it the wait for the answer to the question: what to do? Creon, sent to bring back the word of the oracle, returns with a clear message from the god Apollo: according to it, King Laius’ murderer is still in the city and must be banished or killed in order to end the curse of the plague. King Oedipus swears before all the citizens to find the murderer – not knowing that in the end he will be the murderer this investigation is looking for.

The play examines people’s relationship to order and the law, and depicts the conflict between predetermination and freedom to decide. For aufBruch, the story leads straight to the meaning of making theatre in prison: how does one deal with crime and punishment? Can a person be innocent and yet become guilty?

aufBruch combines the classical Oedipus story with absurd scenes from the pen of Eugene Ionesco: a strange illness is eating its way through a society, destroying commandments, hierarchies and relationships. Almost every human precaution contributes to the very catastrophe it seeks to prevent. While Hölderlin still prophesied: “Where there is danger, the power to save also grows,” Heiner Müller and Ionesco know: where people claim to be saviours, new danger grows.

A theatre production by aufBruch in the Tegel prison

Performed by the Tegel Prison prisoner ensemble: Adrian Zajac, Apo, Chris-Bär Templiner, Frank T., Gino, H. Peter Maier C.d.F., Horst Grimm, Hüdayi, Kurt Lummert, Mladen Stimec, Paul E., Resul Tat.

Director Peter Atanassow Stage designer Holger Syrbe Costume designer Melanie Kanior Dramaturgy Hans-Dieter Schütt Musical coach Vsevolod Silkin Choreography Ronni Maciel Productionmanager Sibylle Arndt Director assistant Binks Mooney Technical support Lukas Maser Graphic Design Dirk Trageser

Tickets: 15 € / 10 € (discounted)

Tickets on sale from:  16th Oktober 2021

Funded by a grant from the Senate Department for Justice, Consumer Protection and Anti-Discrimination
Supported by the JVA Tegel, JVA Plötzensee, Volksbühne Berlin.