About the work
“Eine Seele von Mensch” (literally “A Soul of a Person”, a German idiom for a thoroughly kind-hearted person) is a new play by the writing duo Lutz Hübner and Sarah Nemitz, written as a commission for the Staatstheater Braunschweig. The world premiere is scheduled for 6 November 2026 in the theatre’s Kleines Haus, directed by Erich Sidler. The performance rights are held by the Cologne theatre publisher Hartmann & Stauffacher.
Plot
Rolf, a notoriously grumbling customer, refuses to pay the full price for his meal at the restaurant that Bojan has only just opened and that is still doing poor business. Shortly after the quarrel he dies of a heart attack and finds himself in a realm between life and death. There the angel of death Ezrael and his two demonic helpers, Munk and Nag, are to decide whether Rolf goes to heaven or to hell: four souls re-enact episodes from his life, such as how he left the care of his parents entirely to his siblings or drove a homeless young man out of an allotment colony. Rolf himself sees no fault in his conduct and wants just one thing: to go back to life.
Cultural significance
Hübner and Nemitz are among the most frequently performed contemporary playwrights on German-language stages; their best-known play, “Frau Müller muss weg”, was adapted for the cinema by Sönke Wortmann. In “Eine Seele von Mensch” they use the seven deadly sins as a grid for examining the loss of shared values in the present day, and with a great deal of comedy they ask whether everyone deserves a second chance. How the play will be received cannot yet be said before its premiere.