Marius von Mayenburg

The people who buy paintings like this aren't just driven by aesthetic desire. People who buy paintings like this want a story. 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. Hitler'.Nicola wants to sell it. Philipp wants to keep it. Philipp's wife Judith wants to burn it.A jagged satire from one of Germany's foremost playwrights, Nachtland opened at the Young Vic Theatre, London, in February 2024.

Eldorado: Anton’s got it made: 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.Perplexed: Taking inspiration from Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author, as well as the pens of Stoppard, Nietzsche and Beckett, influential writer Marius von Mayenburg has created a fast-paced and very funny piece of contemporary absurdism. The four actors play musical chairs with their characters in an astonishing tumble of scenes. Their characters are patchwork individuals, groping for assurance and security in a constantly disintegrating reality, while slipping on the metaphysical banana peels von Mayenburg throws in their path. A comedy about the capriciousness of reality, one’s own identity, and the theatre itself.The Dog, The Night and the Knife: A nightmarish flight through a city, in which all men and women have striking similarities: policeman and doctor, criminal and lawyer, patient and nurse. And all of them are after M. 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.

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 made: 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.

A programme text edition published to coincide with the world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 5 February 2009. 'This is our house underneath all this mildew and junk. I know every stone.' As a house passes from owner to owner, and from generation to generation, the secrets buried in the garden and seeping from the walls reveal themselves. Marius von Mayenburg's new play examines the reverberations created by sixty years of German history. Praise for Marius von Mayenburg's The Ugly One: 'Brilliantly clever and funny ...exhilarating.' Independent

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 targets: 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.' Guardian The 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.