Bettina Wilpert belongs to a younger generation of contemporary German authors and has published three novels to date. Her debut novel Nichts, was uns passiert (2018), published in Slovenian in 2020 under the title Kar se nam ne dogaja, immediately attracted widespread critical attention and received several literary awards. While the novel thematically ties into the #onlyYESmeansYES and #Me Too movements, it is one of those rare contemporary works of art that, in addressing the intimate and social consequences of rape and its reporting, avoids moralizing, activism, and a priori condemnation. In this intriguingly structured and Rashomon-style narrative set in the urban student environment of present-day Germany, the author sensitively and thoughtfully highlights the complexity of issues that, at first glance, seem simple and therefore often elicit quick answers and black-and-white perspectives.

The novel’s theme remains urgently and increasingly relevant and has inspired numerous adaptations in other media. In 2023, Julia C. Kaiser directed a television adaptation, while stage and radio versions began appearing shortly after the novel’s publication. The dramatization for our Small Stage was created by young dramaturgs Lara Fritz and Philipp Matthias Müller. Although based on a novel, their work is a play in its own right that incorporates theatrical means of expression on multiple levels; it does not merely transfer the story into the language of the stage, but also attempts to translate the novel’s formal elements into it: the author constantly breaks the linear narrative thread, travels through time with short flashbacks as needed, interweaves various speech situations, and so on.

By reducing the large number of characters in the novel to four performers and by intelligently condensing the epic plot into a dramatic one, the dramatization not only ensures economy but also enables the specificity of the author’s approach in each instance.