With a macabre sense of humour, this lehrstück reflects on changes in handling criminality: from public displays of cruel punishments to simply watching. Set in the 1830s France, Pierre, a civil servant, dreams of an educational Garden of Law. Meeting Vidocq, the master criminal who became chief of police; Lacenaire, the petty thief who was idolised by the bourgeoisie, and Bentham, inventor of the surveillance panopticon, Pierre learns how to control convicts with psychological methods.
