We thank our partners:

GRAF ÖDERLAND

GRAF ÖDERLAND

EINE MORITAT IN ZWÖLF BILDERN
by Max Frisch
DIRECTED BY: Claudia Bossard

PFAUEN
PREMIERE: 25.09.2025
2 hour 15 minutes (no interval)

A banker kills the building superintendent. Just like that – zack! – with an axe, for no reason. While his defense attorney, Dr. Hahn, desperately searches for a motive, prosecutor Martin capitulates before the senselessness of the crime. There’s a crack in the order of things. A murderer without motive. A justice system that just wants vacation. Martin, the guardian of law, sees his world turned upside down. On the eve of the murder trial, he burns all the case files and flees.

Enough of monotony, bourgeois confines, and the exhausting charade with his wife – who, of all people, chose Dr. Hahn as her lover. During his escape into the woods, a new identity takes hold of him. As the legendary "Count Öderland with an axe in hand," he roams the land, hacking his way mercilessly through the underworld.

More and more people follow his trail, stylizing him – Public Enemy No. 1 – into the figurehead of a diffuse rebellion of dropouts. Axe sales boom. But an axe doesn’t think. It feels no disgust. It kills. Life has become murder. Such a life no longer has a story. Pure mechanics replace responsibility. As violence escalates, the state responds with ruthless measures – until only Öderland, drifting between trance and delusion, can end the bloodshed.

With GRAF ÖDERLAND, Zug director Claudia Bossard dissects the explosive cocktail of social alienation, populism, and state failure. She crafts a nuanced psychological portrait where ego and desire ignite revolution, and the identity crisis of a middle-aged man becomes fuel that ignites the blaze.

 

Content Note: This production contains explicit depictions of violence and murder.

Sensory Note: This production contains fog.

© Eike Walkenhorst

© Eike Walkenhorst

© Eike Walkenhorst

© Eike Walkenhorst

© Eike Walkenhorst

© Eike Walkenhorst

© Eike Walkenhorst

© Eike Walkenhorst

© Eike Walkenhorst

SUN 28.09.
Introduction 5.30 p.m.
PFAUEN
FRI 03.10.
Introduction 7.30 p.m.
Post artist talk
PFAUEN
MON 06.10.
THEATRE MONDAY
Introduction 7.30 p.m.
PFAUEN
SUN 12.10.
PFAUEN
THUR 16.10.
Introduction 7.30 p.m.
PFAUEN
SUN 26.10.
PFAUEN
FRI 31.10.
PFAUEN
MON 03.11.
THEATRE MONDAY
PFAUEN
Show more
Show less
Lukas Darnstädt
Henri Mertens
Laina Schwarz
Steven Adjei Sowah
Thomas Wodianka
Louis Rüegger (ZHDK)
Jaël Saier (ZHDK)
DIRECTED BY
Set & Costume Design
Collaboration Set Design
Music & Video
Lighting Design
Dramaturgy
Assistant director
Stage design assistant
Julia Im Obersteg
Costume design assistant
Sandra-Laura Axinte
Assistant director intern
Anna Glünz
Stage design intern
Hannah Ehre
Costume design intern
Lea Colombo
Stage Manager
Dayen Tuskan
Prompting
Katja Weppler
Show more
Show less
Subscribe to newsletter
27