The Dog, the Night and the Knife

It is a hot night in August. M has gotten lost and finds himself at a dead end again. The window shades are shut all around and the streets empty, except for a man with a torn leash in his hand who is searching for his dog. The man offers M his help, then suddenly pulls a knife on him. In self-defense M stabs the man, who oddly enough does not defend himself. Then M does the only reasonable thing: he runs. He knocks on an apartment door, which is opened by a girl spending a sleepless night in her bathrobe while her sister sleeps in the next room. M tries to call the police, but the line is dead. The young sister offers to stand watch for him under one condition: he must not wake up the older sister. M waits in the unfamiliar apartment, and time comes to a stand-still. He enters the older sister’s room. She looks exactly like the younger sister, and is also wearing a bathrobe. After passionate love-making she tries to kill M. But he succeeds in strangling her, though she strangely did not defend herself. M does the only reasonable thing: he runs.

Marius von Mayenburg’s new piece tells of the nightmarish flight through a city, in which all men and women whom M meets have striking similarities: policeman and doctor, criminal and lawyer, patient and nurse. And all of them are after him. Just as the night seems done, and dawn is coming, M faces the irrevocable choice between dangerous love with a zombie, and the lonely hunt with a dog.