Die zerbrochene Schale (Särkynyt malja)

The theme of the play is violence — both physical and emotional. The protagonist is a woman who, living next to a strong but mentally unstable man, loses her own identity. The play describes the gradual crumbling down of the woman’s internal world and her resulting sinking ever deeper into submission and apathy. Not until her acknowledgement of an impending danger that is threatening her children shakes her up is she able to detach herself from the influence of the man and the emotion that she has interpreted as love. Her domestic hell, however, does not stop there: the two children keep the parents bound together even through their mutual hatred of each other. The woman sets out on an introspective journey with the aim of liberating herself from the man, ”terminating him prematurely”, and in this way breaking loose from the chains of love and passion. When she arrives at the end of her journey, she asks, ”Am I now free?”