The dinner

Venue: DT Stage - What would you do if you were about to become prime minister of the country and suddenly found out about a crime that your teenage son committed together with his cousin? For which there seem to be no witnesses and that is already beginning to disappear from the country's short-term memory?

Two pairs of parents meet for dinner in a luxury restaurant and carefully feel their way between aperitif, starter and numerous other courses. Because every single person in this family quartet knows more than initially thought and assesses the situation differently. Was it childish naivety, youthful testing of limits, or a cold crime that their sons committed there? Do they have to report their children so that the young people can be held accountable? Or should you rather cover up the whole thing so as not to ruin the future for their sons? After all, it was just a neglected homeless person who died and who really no one will miss, and don't the adults also have something to lose? The fact is: In the end, a person is dead. And parents need to talk.

The dinner is a moral thriller and a debate piece full of sophisticated twists and surprising feints. It is about violence and how it survives powerfully under the thin varnish of civilization, how the human instinct of aggression is transmitted by the family and perpetrated socially, how it suppresses, plays down and medicated ensures that everything continues to function well. The play is staged by András Dömötör, who has realized numerous plays at the Deutsches Theater in recent seasons: most recently Prima Facie by Suzie Miller in the Chamber and Seduction by Lukas Bärfuss on the DT stage.