Ex
byMarius von Mayenburg
Director: Marius von Mayenburg
German World Premiere
Globe
Daniel, an architect working for a successful firm, once again comes home too late and asks if there’s anything to eat. His wife Sibylle, a doctor who is just as successful in her own field as Daniel, is annoyed: she and the kids, who longingly waited in vain for their father and are now in bed, ate long ago. Besides, she is not responsible for keeping Daniel fed and watered. As she tries to watch a documentary about a famous female doctor, he heats up the leftover lasagne and interrupts her with inept questions. The atmosphere between them is tense. And then Daniel’s phone rings: it’s Franziska, his ex-girlfriend, who is calling him because she needs a place to sleep for the night. Franziska is considerably less well-educated than Daniel and Sibylle, and still works in a pet shop. She seems to have split up with her boyfriend, and asks whether she can stay at their place. Daniel says no: after all, he and Sibylle have to work early the next morning. But not long afterwards, the doorbell rings: Franziska is standing at the door. What is she after turning up at her ex-boyfriend’s in the middle of the night? Why did she ignore Daniel’s refusal and still come? Franziska’s arrival raises questions that had, up until this point, been more or less successfully swept under the carpet: who actually has their say in Daniel and Sibylle’s relationship? Where does the poison in their relationship come from? Why did Daniel and Franziska, who are so unlike each other, ever become a couple? And what actually happened back then? Why did Daniel leave Franziska? Why is Sibylle still with him? Who is telling the truth? And who is lying to whom about what?
Marius von Mayenburg’s venomous new play explores how far one can ever put one’s trust in a relationship, and whether something like class boundaries still exist today. Are love and passion not more important than one’s social origins? Eva Meckbach, Sebastian Schwarz and Marie Burchard, who returns to the Schaubühne ensemble with this role, will be performing.
Music: Nils Ostendorf
Video: Sébastien Dupouey
Dramturg: Maja Zade
Lighting Designer: Erich Schneider
Premieres on 25 March 2025