Eric Vuillard / Stijn Devillé
Orde van de dag

February 1933: a week before the Reichstag fire, twenty-four leading German industrialists meet in secret to pledge their financial support to the Nazis. Today, more than 90 years later, their names still echo familiarly through our living rooms: Bayer, Krupp, Thyssen, Opel, Daimler, BMW, Agfa, Telefunken…

In L’Ordre du Jour, the French writer Éric Vuillard unravels the seemingly harmless meetings, chats, phone calls, and dinners that paved the way for the Anschluss in 1938 and the subsequent Second World War. In delicate, almost light-footed language, he exposes the scheming and strategies that proved necessary to throw the world off balance.

The true story of the Anschluss — a succession of small tests of strength, nervous phone calls, and vulgar threats — displays little in the way of heroic resolve, but rather grotesque intimidation and bluff. Éric Vuillard dismantles the myth of the glorious annexation with biting irony and in doing so created a gripping and intriguing novel. His work The Order of the Day was awarded the coveted Prix Goncourt.

For his theatrical adaptation of this international bestseller, Stijn Devillé brings together the dream casts of Hitler is dood and Mooie Jaren, with a standout role for Sara Vertongen as Adolf Hitler.