by Marius von Mayenburg
Direction:Thomas Ostermeier
A production by the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg

A production taken over from Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg

Kurt reads Heraclitus, constructs his own bombs and loves his sister, Olga. When she is seduced by an older boy, Paul, and his motorbike, Kurt begins to set fires in the neighbourhood. Mother and father are affectionate, but quite helpless in their relationship with the increasingly introvert children and the situation at home begins to escalate.
“Mother: His birth: He came into the world left foot first, he’d thrust that out, but he was still clinging hard to the womb with both hands. I thought he would tear me apart if they pulled him out. They kept screaming in my ear, don’t give up, don’t give up the child, but I didn’t know what child they were talking about any more. When I saw him later, he screwed up his eyes and his mouth. I knew he wasn’t asleep. He didn’t open his eyes at all over those first few days. They lifted up his eyelids and shone a light into his pupils. He just looked back at the light coldly, without crying. He is still like that today.”