KOHLHAAS

Description

The story of Kohlhaas is a news item that happened in Germany in the 1500s, here innervated by the visionary world and poetics of Marco Baliani. The story of an abuse of power which, not resolved through the ways of law, fuels a spiral of increasingly uncontrollable violence in the name of an ideal of natural and earthly justice. The generating conflict – what justice is and to what extent, in its name, one can become vigilantes – ends up being resolved, leaving around the figure of the protagonist an ambiguous aura of a possible hero of his time. An ancient theme, tragic in tradition and form, which raises moral questions underlying every conflict in which, in the name of a higher ideal of social justice, extreme acts are carried out.
Considered one of the shows that started the so-called narrative theatre, Kohlhaas was written by Marco Baliani and Remo Rostagno. Staged for the first time in 1990, it soon became a real workhorse for Baliani, who performed it over a thousand times.