"Traveling from Germany to here ... I've spent a lot of time waiting in the lounges of international airports," said Markus Wessendorf. "And I've always kind of fantasized about how great it would be if (airports) offered not just a VIP or business lounge, but also a theater lounge where you could watch productions."

Wessendorf, a University of Hawai'i-Manoa theater professor, has channeled that fantasy (and then some) into a contemporary staging of German dramatist Friedrich Schiller's landmark 1781 play "The Robbers." Under Wessendorf's direction, the politically violent drama of two rebellious brothers in 18th-century Germany is staged as a straight-on performance by an acting troupe waiting for a flight in a raucous post-9/11 airport lounge. The audience is asked to imagine themselves as commuters watching the play while waiting for the same flight.

"People have a very special relationship (with) flying and airports now," said Wessendorf. "After Sept. 11, no one feels safe anymore. We're now living in a society where surveillance, or the notion of the security check, has become increasingly prevalent. Your civil liberties are no longer as guaranteed as they were before. And the airport is probably the first environment that comes to mind — the most evident environment — where those changes have been implemented."

To set the required mood of anxiety, audience members entering Kennedy Theatre (renamed Kennedy Airport) will be escorted through faux metal detectors before finding their seats. On stage, actors will be screened in full view of the audience by security staff as they move from a waiting lounge area into a performance area, and stripped of questionable prop weapons.

Annie Lipscomb and Blake Kushi perform in "The Robbers." Director Markus Wessendorf asks the audience to imagine they are commuters waiting for their flights. Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser

"There's one scene where someone has to strangle someone else with dental floss, where in the original play that person would've shot the other person," said Wessendorf, smiling.

Events are a bit more extreme than, say, an average day at Honolulu International — gunshots are often heard off stage, and the National Guard and FBI occasionally interrupt the performance. But Wessendorf insisted there was a method to his on-stage madness.