Winter at Dawn

based on the novel by Jens-Martin Eriksen

The contact to Danish author Jens-Martin Eriksen came about in 2008 after Frank Heuel discovered the novel WINTER AT DAWN and was tempted to create a stage adaptation. Eriksen agreed to the request with openness and curiosity. The author did not see the result until the premiere. Heuel and Eriksen realized there would be future collaborations. (Finland and The Trial of Malaparte).

For the stage adaptation, Heuel shortened the text and broke up the perspective of each narrator: three actors implement the haunting story polyphonically, increasing the tension between the individual and the group acoustically, almost musically spoken.

The work deliberately leaves gaps, leaves the viewer alone with questions of guilt, responsibility, norms. No index finger rises. This is its strength: here the audience is responsible for judging. Eriksen was enthusiastic about the adaptation and implementation of his novel.

Westphalian News

More preciseness cannot be achieved than how Heuel stages literary texts.

Bonn Review

It proves to be almost brilliant of Heuel, to occupy the role of the protagonist with three actors of different and increasing ages, Manuel Klein, David Fischer and Harald Redmer. They give the character a menacing-trivial intensity.

General-Anzeiger Bonn

It pays to get involved in this theatrical study of the manipulation of man.

Muenster newspaper


For more information on the play, please visit the fringe ensemble website.


WINTER AT DAWN is promoted by the City of Munster, the Arts Foundation NRW, the Minister Presidents of North Rhine-Westphalia and the City of Bonn.