Les Brigands

Following the disowning by his father, orchestrated by Franz, his twin brother, Karl embarks on a life of brigandry. Finding refuge in the forests of Bohemia, he leads a band formed with his classmates. Meanwhile, during the absence of the prodigal twin at the family castle, Franz tries to seize paternal power and win over Amalia, Karl’s fiancée. Jealousy, tyranny, rebellion, and blood will spare no one.

A contemporary of Goethe, Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) wrote The Robbers while studying medicine at the Karlsschule Stuttgart, a military academy that was despotic and isolated from the world. Published in 1782, in a Germany (the Holy Roman Empire) torn by conflict, the play is an emblematic work of the literary movement Sturm und Drang ("storm and stress"). Drawing influences from thinkers and artists such as Rousseau, Hamann, and Shakespeare, this movement is founded on freedom and the questioning of the rationalism of the Enlightenment, as well as the established order, whether social, aesthetic, religious, or political.