Metropol

Photo: Thomas Aurin
based on the novel by Eugen Ruge
Adapted for theatre by Armin Petras
Depot 2
Duration:
2 h 35 min • with intermission
PREMIERE:
01ST October 2021
The Soviet Union at the end of the 1930s: Charlotte and her husband Wilhelm have successfully fled Nazi Germany. They want to start a new life in the home of communism and, like many other true comrades from all over the world, realise the dream of a just society. Then, the show trial against the “traitors” and “enemies of the people” from their own ranks begins in Moscow. To Charlotte’s horror, one of her acquaintances is among the accused. Could this friendship alone implicate Charlotte and Wilhelm as suspects? Have they made themselves culpable? If so, for what charge?

The couple is ordered to stay in the former luxury hotel Metropol. Stalin’s terror spreads. People continue to lose their jobs, are arrested, executed or disappear without a trace. And yet, despite the increasing isolation and the fear, it is clear that Charlotte and the people around her want to hold onto their belief in communism; they must not allow any doubt to arise.

The author, Eugen Ruge describes his novel Metropol, as a “story about what people are willing and able to believe”. As he did his award-winning book In Times of Fading Light, he dedicates Metropol to his family and describes his grandmother’s years in Moscow, which she miraculously survived.

Armin Petras has adapted this oppressive factual novel and brings the production to Depot 2.


direction: Armin Petras
stage design: Olaf Altmann
costume: Cinzia Fossati
MUSICAL ARRANGEMENT: Sven Kaiser
stage lighting: Michael Frank
dramaturgy: Sibylle Dudek