Hard Land

Coming of Age | Friendship | First Love

That one summer that changes everything and lingers on forever – in *Hard Land*, it becomes a luminous space of memory. Set in a small town in Missouri in the 1980s, Sam is on the cusp of adulthood. A summer job at the town’s only cinema becomes a refuge and the starting point for new friendships: with the queer Cameron, the cool Kirstie and the unshakeable Hightower. Amidst night-time drives, first love and the promise of boundless freedom, Sam discovers what it means to truly live – ‘exuberant and awake and right in the thick of it and immortal’. But just as everything is beginning, an irreparable loss looms: saying goodbye to his beloved mother.

Benedict Wells’ novel has been one of Switzerland’s best-selling books since its publication in 2021 and has been translated into numerous languages. It became the bestseller by the author, who hails from Lucerne. Theatre director Katja Langenbach has adapted the material for the stage for the first time, exclusively for the Lucerne Theatre – a poetic and direct production about memory, loss and the magic of a formative summer.

Bastian Inglin, a young actor from Zug who has been part of the Luzerner Theater ensemble since the 2024 / 25, has been a member of the Lucerne Theatre ensemble and was awarded the Armin Ziegler Foundation’s Encouragement Prize in 2025 for his role as Sam, and nominated by ‘Theater Heute’ as best emerging artist.

6.15 pm | Introduction

Duration: approx. 170 mins, including an interval
Age: 14+
Language: German