Written over only five weeks between January and February of 1835 by the twenty-one year old (who was to die only three years later) writer on the run from the authorities of Hessen where he had been involved in a revolt, Danton’s death (Dantons Tod) describes the atmosphere of the last days of The Terror, the fall of Georges Jacques Danton in 1794 and the antagonism which set him against Maximilien Robespierre. The dramatic discourse concentrates on the contraposition between the two standard bearers of the French Revolution, first companions and then later rivals, both destined for the guillotine just a few days apart from each other. Danton did not believe in the necessity of The Terror and defended a vision of a free and tolerant world, even if he knew of the limits of the revolutionary action; his antagonist instead embodied the Jacobean line, stoic, inflexible, furious.
Büchner nurtured Danton’s Death with themes all too relevant for modern times: the nature of the revolution, the relationship between men and women, friendship, class, determinism, materialism, the very role of the theatre. Rarely staged in Italy, Danton’s Death has been staged by Giorgio Strehler, Jean Vilar and more recently by Robert Wilson, Thomas Ostermeier, and Christoph Marthaler. Mario Martone directs for the first time at the Teatro Stabile di Torino this masterpiece by the great German writer.

Duration: three hours with interval