The player

THE GAMBLER tells the story of a young Russian tutor, unhappy in love, who takes refuge in gambling at the casino in the fictional German spa town of ‘Roulettenburg’. He is in the service of a Russian family whose patriarch is eagerly awaiting the passing of his ailing aunt, the sole heir. The aunt, however, is as lively as ever – and turns up unexpectedly at the casino and starts playing. And always bets on zero. And wins. She wins at first – and then she loses. In three days, she loses everything: her fortune, the inheritance, her jewellery, all her possessions.

Where does the game end, and where does reality begin? Why does gambling hold such an incredibly high status in our society, from scratch cards to the roulette table to football betting? Where does this desire for self-destruction come from, and where does this incredible longing to ignore ‘reason’ stem from? Dostoyevsky dealt with these questions in a brilliant way in his novel. This theme fits perfectly with Baden, which has a long tradition of casinos.

○ “The Kurtheater is putting all its eggs in one basket: the Baden ‘Gambler’ thrives on mischief and malice. Director Andreas Storm strips the text down to its bare bones in Baden, but enriches his stage adaptation with [an] ‘Introduction to the Game of Roulette’ and passages from ‘A Summer in Baden-Baden’, a novel about Dostoevsky by Leonid Zypkin.” Aargauer Zeitung