Small budget, big impact: The Weimar Art Festival surprises again this year with its program: Thomas Köck’s piece “Your Palaces Are Empty” will be premiered as an opera. And the Thalia Theater is sending “Danton’s Death Reloaded” to its premiere in Goethe’s city.
When Thomas Köck’s play “Your Palaces Are Empty” had its premiere at the Munich Kammerspiele almost two years ago, people were overwhelmed by anger and indignation, three hours of oomph. Köck, born in 1986, is one of the most performed playwrights of his generation, precisely because he actually writes a single, long play with many new variations. Topic: Man destroys himself and the world out of greed, stupidity and selfishness. The wild mix in this case: the bloody conquest of Latin America by crazy conquistadors looking for gold, the opiate epidemic in the USA, plus a seer who no one listens to because he only speaks in riddles.