The play is a theatrical version of the short story Michael Kohlhaas by the German writer and dramatist Heinrich von Kleist (1777-1881). The play is somewhat original in that the Hungarian dramatist who adapted it for the stage chose to assign the narration of events, which are based on a true story that occured in Germany in 1532, to the central character's two horses which are the cause of a series of upsets and rebellions.