Karl Kraus' monumental drama The Last Days of Mankind is a perceptive and bitter reckoning with the horrors of the First World War. Written between 1915 and 1922, in over 200 scenes, Kraus depicts the depths of war in all its grotesque and equally unbearable absurdity: from the cynical delusion of politicians and disinformation by the press to the dull indifference of the population. Kraus relentlessly exposes how the intertwining of power interests and war propaganda, together with a society that readily believes the lies, makes the madness of war possible in the first place. In the foreword, he emphasizes: "The most improbable conversations held here were spoken verbatim; the most lurid inventions are quotations." Kraus draws on documented events and overheard dialogue, turning his audience into witnesses to a world that is knowingly plunging into war. Kraus himself initially conceived The Last Days of Humanity as a reading piece and only approved it for the stage in 1928. It was written as a "Martian theater" because no earthly stage could ever fully perform this pandemonium, he states in the preface.

Michael Maertens

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Jul 24 - Aug 6, 2025

The last days of humanity · Salzburger Festspiele

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