The TAK Theater Liechtenstein is bringing the novel to the stage for the first time in 15 years in a new dramatization authorized by the author.
Alexander von Humboldt loves research and hates boredom. Even as a child, he decided to explore the New World. When he actually set off for America, he had the best measuring instruments with him to remeasure the world. A pioneer of ecological and biological thinking, he invented geography along the way and catapulted the world into the age of modern science. He drives his companions to despair, as his explorations go beyond the limits of human possibility - be it in the Amazon or on the Chimborazo.
The misanthrope and mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, on the other hand, would prefer not to leave his apartment at all. He couldn't understand why anyone should travel to America; the greatest discoveries could be made at home at the kitchen table. He writes the basics of arithmetic and astrophysics and penetrates spiritual worlds that no one has ever seen before. At the same time, he is the most unpleasant contemporary imaginable: grumpy and bad-tempered, he gets on everyone's nerves.
Daniel Kehlmann combines these two characters in a text that brilliantly brings to life the turning point of the early 19th century. The idea that the world will soon be fully understood, described, measured and, thanks to science, have a better, enticing future ahead of it, inspires a generation that is ultimately replaced by a new era whose people are politically motivated and strive for freedom, unity and national sovereignty. The boundlessness of the old world gives way to new, also spiritual boundaries.
World premiere September 21, 2024
Further performances: October 3 and 22, November 7 and 22, 2024
