The Little Prince uff Baseldytsch

27 November 2021

The first performance of The Little Prince (Der Kleine Prinz) at the Marionette Theatre in Basel took place in 1960.

The timeless novella by the French writer-pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) has appeared in more than three hundred languages and dialects.

In Switzerland, the book has been translated into the four national languages (der Kleine Prinz, le petit Prince, il piccolo Principe, il pitchen Prinzi and even into Baaseldutsch: Dr gläi Brinz). The Little Prince is the most translated book in the world after the Bible.

The story is meant for children, but the subject is adults. The book is a must for adults. De Saint-Exupéry wrote the book Le Petit Prince in 1943 in his place of exile, New York. That year, the English translation ‘The Litte Prince’ appeared with the author’s drawings.

The author did not live to see the first French edition. He died on 31 July 1944 as an Allied air force pilot in the Mediterranean. The French edition appeared in 1946. The first Baaseldütschi Ussgoob (Basel German edition) appeared in 2016.

On his tour through the universe, the Prince encounters six planetoids and the planet Earth. Here, in the desert, he meets the story’s narrator, the pilot (a reference to De Saint-Exupéry).

He has made an emergency landing in the desert. In eight days, the Prince tells the story of his impressions and contacts with adults on the six planetoids; he inhabits planetoid B612.

The last performance this year will take place on 31 December.

 (Source: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Dr gläi Brinz, Basel 2018).

(Further information: www.bmtheater.ch).