The people who buy paintings like this aren't just driven by aesthetic desire. A story that catapults them into the orbit of the Führer. As Nicola and Philipp are clearing out their late father's house, they find an old painting stashed in the attic: a quaint watercolour of a church on a pale summer day, signed 'A.
"A nocturnal flaneur gets caught in a nightmare of murder and desire (The dog, the night and the knife), a canny businessman is suddenly brought low (Eldorado) and two couples get tangled in absurdly comic partner relationships (Perplex). In Marius von Mayenburg's plays, dreams and reality are very closely linked and social existence is an endangered construction."--Page 4 of cover
Benjamin won’t do swimming at school. His mum thinks he’s on drugs or has body issues. But Benjamin has found God and mixed-sex swimming lessons offend him. Fundamentalism and tolerance clash in this funny, provocative play by leading German playwright, Marius von Mayenburg. Martyr considers how far we should go in accommodating another’s faith, and when we should take a stand for our own opposing beliefs.
Anton’s got it dream house, artistic wife, baby on the way. And, as the smoke rises from another city saved by coalition bombs, there’s a fortune to be made rebuilding the wreckage. So what’s he doing forging his boss’s signature? And why has his wife crushed her hands under the piano lid?Painfully funny scenes of married bliss in meltdown and the insistent presence, on their screens and in their dreams, of the West's far-flung and half-forgotten wars – Eldorado asks what happens when the drive for success carries us past our coping point.
Lette thought he was normal. When the extent of his ugliness is revealed he turns to a plastic surgeon for help. But after the bandages come off, Lette soon learns that there is such a thing as too beautiful.'Owing glancing debts to Mary Shelley and HG Wells, Mayenburg's 60-minute play squarely hits any number of our society's obsession with external beauty, the brutality of capitalism, and the danger of treating defining organs like mechanical parts. But, deftly translated from German by Maja Zade, the play makes its points with the lightest of touches.' GuardianThe Ugly One is a scalpel-sharp comedy on beauty, identity and getting ahead in life.The play is published as a programme text edition to coincide with its British premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 13 September 2007.