Dirty Hands

«You speak against your heart.»

It is in turbulent times that the young Hugo is politicised and becomes a member of a political party. He seeks to flee his intellectual childhood home and its bourgeois privilege to fight for justice. Party leader Hoederer is striving for a strategic alliance with the opposition – to the dissatisfaction of the radical party members. They decide to do away with him. To do something for once, Hugo takes on the job of assassinating Hoederer and moves with his wife Jessica into Hoederer’s house. Fuelled by revolutionary ideals, he meets an experienced political realist who captivates him, and causes Hugo’s principles to waver.

Sartre’s piece is a timeless political thriller about power, values, and humanity; and a reflection on trust and fear, responsibility and freedom in the (social) structures and (political) systems in which we live. It now lies in the hands of Jan Bosse, who lends the philosophical text a playful staging, and who returns to the Schauspielhaus after six years. It was also here, where the new translation by Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel is now being premiered, that the German-language premiere of SCHMUTZIGE HÄNDE [DIRTY HANDS] took place on 6 November 1948.