The great dramatist and poet Friedrich Schiller foresaw in his classic "Sturm und Drang" epic THE ROBBERS, his first play, terrible calamities and excesses in humanity's march toward freedom. This is what gives the play its special resonance today: for Schiller's young rebels who idealize revolt become—more than a simple band of robbers—an organized group of terrorists. In fact, both of the brothers around whom the play centers, are products of the enlightenment who employ terror as a means to their ends. Carl Moor does so because of his passionate hatred for the petty tyrants and comfortable bourgeois types who comprised the class of "ombudsmen"— priests, ministers, magistrates, officialdom in general--who served the feudal system. Franz Moor, meanwhile, attempts to seize power in his father's feudal estates in a highly rational, Machiavellian fashion. The former is all the spirit and passion of Romanticism, and the latter the pure, pragmatic power-seeker of the Enlightenment. Schiller shows how both these trends in human civilization can go wrong. This is a powerful and dynamic play, here cut to two hours from its much longer original length, perfect for companies who enjoy doing Shakespeare.