The robbers

Schiller's robbers agree: the world cannot be changed with words, but only with deeds. And so a gang of young men roam the country, determined to break down all the boundaries of what they see as a false society. They fight for freedom and end up being nothing more than a gang of murderers. Director Mathias Spaan transports Schiller's band of robbers into the future. They have grown old, the robbers with heroic courage, and reflect on "the good old days", when violence was a legitimate means of revolution and "masculine qualities" such as courage and strength were not yet considered toxic. "The play has something dreamlike, something erratic about it and comes across as if in shreds. It reminds me of Kafka. The dreamlike quality inspired me to want to look at this play as if through the rear-view mirror or to be able to scrutinize it in a kind of flashback ... Age gives the robbers back something vulnerable, something tender that they wouldn't have as young men. Moreover, at the end of their lives they have to ask themselves the questions, 'What have I actually done in my life? What have I achieved? And has any of it been good? These questions are central to my work. I ask them to myself again and again. How do I want to behave in this world and can I stand there at the end of my life and say that the effort I made was good?" (Mathias Spaan)