The Captain of Köpenick at the National Theatre is the story of petty criminal Wilhelm Voigt played by Anthony Sher.
Released after fifteen years in prison, trapped in a bureaucratic maze, he wanders 1910 Berlin in desperate, hazardous pursuit of identity papers. Luck changes when he picks up an abandoned military uniform in a fancy-dress shop and finds the city ready to obey his every command. At the head of six soldiers, he marches to the Mayor’s office, cites corruption and confiscates the treasury with ease. But still what he craves is official recognition that he exists.
A nation heads blindly towards war as the misfit takes on the state in Ron Hutchinson’s savagely funny new version of Carl Zuckmayer’s The Captain of Köpenick, first staged in Germany in 1931.
Antony Sher is wonderful as Voigt – a conniving, petty thief, with oodles of charm’ Metro
‘Hilarious... Spectacular... Adrian Noble and designer Anthony Ward pull out all the stops in this lively adaptation’ The Times
‘Moments of laugh-out-loud absurdity’ Time Out
‘Antony Sher gives a terrific high-definition performance.’ Daily Telegraph
‘The play feels vitally both of its own time and of ours. Antony Sher hits the emotional bull’s-eye as a petty criminal who impersonates a captain’ Financial Times
At the
National Theatre for a limited season, book
The Captain of Köpenick tickets today