DAS Grosse Heft

A musical theater based on the book “le grand Cahier” by Agota Kristof

Two nine-year-old twins are the protagonists of “the Notebook”. Because of the ongoing war, their mother decides to leave them in the countryside at her mother’s house, hoping that there, the boys must not starve. But their grandmother will mistreat and exploit them mercilessly. In order to protect themselves, the twins conceive of exercises to harden themselves physically and psychologically, of which they take notes in a large notebook. They develop their own moral concepts, absent models or instructions. In her powerful book, Agota Kristof illustrates the effects of war on civilian populations through the lens of a perverted childhood. She writes about uprooting and loneliness, violence and cruelty.