Jeremiah: A Drama in Nine Scenes

In this ferocious dramatic work, Stefan Zweig reimagines the biblical prophet Jeremiah not as a triumphant messenger of God, but as a broken man drowning in foreknowledge. Jerusalem teeters on the edge of catastrophe, and Jeremiah alone sees the armies gathering on the horizon. His mother pleads with him to abandon his terrible visions and preach peace. The city mocks him. His people turn away. And yet he cannot stop speaking the unspeakable truth. Written in the shadow of World War I, this nine-scene drama cuts to something universal: the unbearable isolation of the prophet who sees clearly what others refuse to see, and the devastating cost of bearing witness to disaster before it arrives. Zweig strips away the mysticism and leaves only raw human anguish, making Jeremiah's struggle feel startlingly contemporary. This is not a story of divine triumph but of mortal endurance, of a man who cannot look away from destruction even as it destroys him.