Students £3.50, Others £5.00
Tickets will be available on the door.
In 2012, a terrifying idea is yet again set to threaten the future, as tensions between the USA and Iran mount. An idea, which first arose with the Cold War, in the days in which the world anxiously waited for news of the stalemate between the USA and Russia, where the advance of nuclear weaponry threatened an apocalyptic future which could be triggered at the touch of a button. It is in this cold war setting that Dürrenmatt’s witty yet dark comedy Die Physiker takes place, with the fate of the entire world hanging in the balance in a web of intrigue in which we are left to question, who is the real madman…. and what secret is so great that it must be hidden by murder?
Three patients, physicists, are interned in Les Cerisiers, a sanitorium in Europe in which a murder has recently taken place. The murderer is the first patient, Ernst Heinrich Ernesti, who believes himself to be Einstein, and the victim was a nurse at the sanitorium. The play opens at the investigation into her death, and the discovery is quickly made that this is not the first murder at Les Cerisiers. As well as Einstein, there are two other patients: Herbert Georg Beutler, who believes himself to be Sir Isaac Newton, and Johann Wilhelm Möbius, who believes he is visited by the biblical King Solomon. The patients are looked after by the famed psychiatrist Mathilde von Zahnd, who accepts their delusions and allows them a peaceful life in the protection of the sanatorium.
In the second act dramatic twists are revealed, and it becomes clear just how much is truly at stake. Murder is not an issue for those who are aware of the truth…. but are they alone in the knowledge of the secret? With a nuclear threat hanging in the balance, will another murder be enough to protect the staff and patients of Les Cerisiers? Come and find out....
The cast consists of a wide range of talented students from 1st to 4th year German degree courses, and the play is organised by Frank Ruf of the German department. Performances will take place in March 2012. Whether you wish to practice your German, support your friends or simply enjoy our version of the black comedy, this is a play which will entertain!