An inexplicable crack in the Pyrenees Mountains provokes excitement and scientific curiosity. As the geological fracture deepens and widens, the European community begins to disassociate itself from the calamity, and panic ensues among tourists and residents attempting to escape. When Spain and Portugal physically separate from the continent, the detached Iberian peninsula aimlessly floats off to sea, becoming home to a group of god-like humans.

At a busy intersection, a man waits for the traffic light to turn green and – suddenly goes blind. A helpful passer-by brings the blind man home; a little later he also becomes blind. A strange epidemic seems to have broken out, with more and more people in the city turning blind from one moment to the next. To avoid further contagion, the government cannot think of another solution but to intern the victims in a deserted mental institution. Disoriented, left to themselves, and unable to grasp their destiny, the blind seek to organise their lives in this new environment. But the more people arrive, the more unbearable, chaotic, and violent the situation becomes.
In his novel »Blindness«, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1998, the great Portuguese storyteller José Saramago not only paints the realistic picture of a sudden catastrophe, but also reveals the philosophical universe of a general blindness in which human action appears as violent and ridiculously grotesque. We are delighted that Kay Voges, who was recently invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen with his spectacular production of »Borderline Prozession«, will be staging a play for the first time for the Deutsches SchauSpielHaus.

Premieres 16/03/2019 SchauSpielHaus

As the lights change at a major crossroads in a city in the heart of Europe a car grinds to a halt. Its driver can drive no more. Suddenly, without warning or cause, he has gone blind. Within hours it is clear that this is a blindness like no other. This blindness is infectious. Within days an epidemic of blindness has spread through the city. The government tries to quarantine the contagion by herding the newly blind people into an empty asylum. But their attempts are futile. The city is in panic.

Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens has adapted Nobel Prize-winner José Saramago’s dystopian novel Blindness as a sound installation for the Donmar Warehouse, directed by Walter Meierjohann with immersive binaural sound design by Ben and Max Ringham. Juliet Stevenson voices the Storyteller/Doctor’s wife in this gripping story of the rise and, ultimately, profoundly hopeful end of an unimaginable global pandemic.

This hour-long ticketed installation for a limited number of visitors will run four times a day, with seating arranged 2m apart in accordance with social distancing guidelines in a transformed Donmar Warehouse. Visitors will listen on headphones as the narrative unfolds around them.

Image description: A portrait image showing six abstract, blurred figures against a white background. The figures are positioned midway up the image and the two central figures appear closer, with the other four standing at different distances behind them. There is a grey gradient over the image which is infused with a pink wash over some areas

A mild-mannered college professor discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man's private affairs.

When a sudden plague of blindness devastates a city, a small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine.