Die Verdammten (the damned)

In Die Verdammten, Visconti wanted to create a modern-day Macbeth. What emerged was the disturbing analysis of a corrupted industrialist family that tied its destiny inseparably to the success of their company and to politics. Inspired by the German steel and arms dynasty Krupp, Die Verdammten portrays the schemes and mechanisms of the demise of a grand family business before the backdrop of an even greater tragedy: the downfall of an entire society that allows itself to be overpowered by National Socialism. What was the political and aesthetic power of fascination that attracted the elites to this inhuman ideology? What were the consequences of this fatal amalgamation of personal career interests, economic success and authoritarian power politics in unstable times?

Following “Mary Page Marlowe”, this is director David Bösch’s second production at Berliner Ensemble. He regularly works at theatres and opera houses like the Vienna Burgtheater, Schauspielhaus Bochum and Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.