Elias Canetti

What would happen if we knew fom the start how long we were going to live? How would we structure and form our lives - and how would this change our relationships?
In his play Die Befristeten which was written in the early Fifties, Elias Canetti asks these questions. He shows us a society in which the names of the people are the number of years they will live. A central power called Kapselan controls und administers death. And the people are serene - because the certainty of death means the end of mourning to them. Only one man named Fifty starts doubting the system.