With mechanical looms and cheap imported cotton, wages have fallen, poverty and unemployment among weavers has risen. The manufacturer Thirty wants to push the wages even further and has no sympathy for the complaints of his workers. Hunger drives the weavers to fight, despair to violence. Hauptmann’s drama written in the Silesian dialect deals with the Weber uprising of 1844. The author has studied the historical sources for his social drama, quotes verbatim and takes over the course of the insurrection down to the last detail.
A production of the Deutsches Theater Berlin
Director: Michael Thalheimer
Cast
Baker: Peter Moltzen
Hunter: Norman Hacker Moritz
The old Baumert: Sven Lehmann
Mother Baumert/Luise, Gottlieb Hilses wife: Katrin Wichmann
Bertha Baumert/Mielchen, Gottlieb Hilse’s Daughter: Claudia Eisinger
The old Ansorge: Michael Gerber
Mrs. Heinrich/Mrs. Hilse:Gabriele Heinz
The old Hilse: Jürgen Huth
Gottlieb Hilse/coach, Gendarm: Christoph Franken
Reimann: Elias Arens
Heiber: Markus Graf
Dreißiger, manufacturer:Ingo Hülsmann
Mrs. Dreißiger: Isabel Schosnig
Pfeifer, Expedient/A traveller: Moritz Grove
Pastor Kittelhaus: Horst Lebinsky
Heide, Police administrator/Welzel, innkeeper: Bernd Stempel
Hornig, Lumpensammler: Paul Schröder
Wittig, Schmied: Michael Schweighöfer