Christoph Ransmayr tells the story of Odysseus's return home in timeless images, depicting a man forever marked by war who ultimately cannot remain in his homeland. After years of detours driven by greed, lust, and ambition, Odysseus returns from the war at Troy as a shipwrecked man and no longer recognizes his land: Ithaca seems to have sunk into chaos during years without a ruler. The returnee, who has renounced weapons, seeks to restore the old order as a prophet of peace, but once again becomes a butcher at the abyss between his visions of longing and reality. Christoph Ransmayr's play about the endlessness and omnipresence of war, which forever marks its surviving victims, will have its world premiere by Schauspiel Dortmund as part of the European Capital of Culture.