based on the novel by Daniel Kehlmann adapted for the stage by Johanna Schall and Grit van Dyk
It is the Thirty Years' War that is raging in the land through which Tyll has been traveling as a juggler, tightrope walker and anarchic jester since he fled his hometown as a boy after his father was convicted as a sorcerer. On his way through burnt-down towns and depopulated regions, he meets ordinary folk, historical figures, poets and dragon researchers. As a court jester, he accompanies the "Winter King" Frederick V and his English wife and encounters the Swedish King Gustav Adolf in his army camp. In a world characterized by the conflicting confusion of superstition, inquisition and science, Tyll slips miraculously through time and space. He even escapes deadly dangers, only to reappear at the end during the negotiations for the Peace of Westphalia.
Daniel Kehlmann's bestselling novel "Tyll", published in 2017, is a powerful, knowledgeable and gripping epic about the time of the Thirty Years' War, in which historical evidence and fiction are interwoven with a wealth of perspectives. It tells of the collapse of all order in a Europe that has come apart at the seams. Where is the fool in our present day, the resistant non-conformist who fearlessly speaks unpleasant truths in order to sharpen the eyes of others?
"And don't hit me, I'm allowed to say that, you know the fool's freedom."
