Der Sohn

In the organizer's words:

by Florian Zeller | German by Annette and Paul Bäcker
German language premiere

Finally back on the program:

The performance was a huge success in 2020, which was unfortunately cut short by the corona pandemic. In the meantime, French author Florian Zeller has not only won an Oscar for his film adaptation of his play "The Father" with Anthony Hopkins, but he has also made a film of "The Son". Our actor playing the title character received the "Boy Gobert Award" for his performance this year.

Florian Zeller ("Die Wahrheit", "Eine Stunde Ruhe", "Hinter der Fassade") was actually known as a comedy specialist before switching genres with the touching Alzheimer's drama "Der Vater". His play, which was also highly acclaimed in Paris and London and celebrated by audiences, is now about a son who suffers greatly from the separation of his parents.

In his graduation year of all years, Nicolas begins to skip school, jeopardizing his graduation. Everything seems too much for him. He feels completely overwhelmed by life. His father, who has remarried and had another child with a younger woman, takes over the upbringing of his son, whom he has barely cared for so far. But moving in with his father's new family doesn't make life any easier for Nicolas. On the contrary. Will his separated parents be able to give their son, who was in hospital after a failed suicide attempt, back the zest for life he once had without professional help? Do they actually understand what their son is suffering from?

In his fast-paced sequence of scenes and with his well-known razor-sharp dialog, Florian Zeller once again paints a complex portrait of family abysses. Touching and tragicomic, he succeeds in bringing together people and generations who live in completely different worlds. And at the end, the author offers two versions of how the story could end.

The main roles of the parents are played by Herbert Knaup ("Die Kanzlei"), who was the protagonist in all three Zeller performances at the St. Pauli Theater, and Johanna Christine Gehlen.

With: Herbert Knaup, Sinja Dieks, Peter Franke, Johanna Christine Gehlen, Dennis Svensson

Director: Ulrich Waller | Stage: Raimund Bauer | Costumes: Ilse Welter

Price information:

St. Pauli Theater ticket hotline: (040) 4711 0 666, st-pauli-theater.de and at all known advance booking offices