The rats

The unemployed theater director Hassenreuter lives in the attic of a Berlin tenement where he maintains a theater fund, gives acting lessons and philosophizes about the theater. The cleaning lady Henriette John lives a few floors below. Unhappy about the loss of her child, she buys the maid Pauline Piperkarcka's newborn baby and passes it off as her own. When Pauline is plagued by remorse, the deal comes to light and triggers a maelstrom of events that takes many of the characters with it. The people in this apartment building live together and past each other in a very confined space - a whole world divided into upstairs and downstairs.

In his "most important contribution to modern world theater" (Hans Mayer), Gerhart Hauptmann combines thriller elements, tragedy and comedy to create a timeless attempt at the human desire for happiness and the omnipresent danger of failure. With wit and perspicacity, he also reflects a theater world that loses sight of people when it only revolves around itself.