Winter Solstice

by Roland Schimmelpfennig

Christmas Eve. Bettina and her husband Albert aren’t happy. Bettina’s mother is staying for the holidays. Which is awkward. Not least because Bettina’s mother met a man on the train. And now she’s invited him around for drinks…

Family, betrayal and the inescapable presence of the past reverberate through this razor-sharp comedy.

Schimmelpfennig is the most performed playwright in Germany and one of the country’s most exciting original voices, with productions of his work worldwide in over 40 countries.

Genres: Plays

172 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 13, 2017

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must admit that had I not read beforehand that this is in some sense a reaction to the encroaching fascism in many parts of the world today, I wouldn't necessarily have 'gotten it' from reading the script - it's VERY subtle. And as reviews note, it really could have done with some pruning... it's a bloated 130 pages in script form.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...

[Bryn Hammond · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. I can imagine it might be stunning in performance.
The bland publisher's description is offset by the director's introduction ('English language premiere two days ahead of the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump'). 'Razor sharp comedy', says the back of the paperback. Comedy? This review is a riposte:
'Nazism comes knocking: German playwright probes the lure of fascism'
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...

[Samarth Gowda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I might have expected too much from this play. The blurb promised me a family with betrayal, and I thought after seeing the cover of the book, that this play might be a crime or suspense related work that a certain someone dies in the family inside the surrounding walls, the walls that comforted them, which they called home but to my surprise It wasn't about murder, killing or anything quite related to blood, red, although there wasn't a whole lot of blood, there was a whole lot of red wine, broken expectations, a lingering lost warmth and a cold christmas midnight with people awake. People still struggling with their present, with doubts of a possible future, who believe past once over, doesn't exist, forgotten.

I think the whole play was trying to speak with me about things related to communism, abandonement, atonement and righteous things that defined "Will it be ok to kill another human, if it's the right thing to do", I don't know, because all these things felt so subtle in the play, as though I heard someone whisper behind my back. I would really like to give this play another try, because after reading all the positive reviews this 130 pages script holds, I might have missed a lot, might be because of my still developing critical reading aspects.

One sentence that stuck with me was: "Frictions, Oppositions, tensions, everything and nothing-
wanting and not being able to, not being allowed-
Not abstracts"

[N. N. Santiago · Rating 2 out of 5]

Conforms to so many of the worst strands of German artistic pomposity, right down to the pseudo-intellectual mock-Wittgenstein text layout.

1.13.
BETTINA
But what's it even got to do with you? What's it got to do with you? -

ALBERT
It's to do with me when you go creeping off -

1.14.
The - ee - sounds as if his voice is slipping away from him.

1.15.
BETTINA
Creeping off? It was an important call - they want to change the script, they say it's too -

[Pence08 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! What an exciting and inventive play. The story isn't particularly new, a middle class marriage on the verge of collapse is celebrating Xmas when an unexpected and uninvited guest arrives peddling a fascist agenda parcelled in false truth...

RUDOLPH One must know one’s place. Like in an orchestra. Everyone has their place. Not everyone is the composer. Not everyone is the conductor. It’s Latin. Con-duce: the leader.

...One must act. In this way, it reminds me of the wonderful independent film The Last Supper. The plot doesn't take such a macabre twist as that film, but it is in every way a black comedy.

But what is incredibly thrilling, to me, is the way that that Schimmelpfennig's staging influences the telling of the story. All stage directions are spoken, and often have us wading in delicious dramatic irony as we learn of secrets before the characters do (if they do). I know this is not especially new, but I have never seen it done to this extent before, and how a director would stage it intrigues me. The mystery of a missing glass bauble is a particularly memorable moment. I would love to see Winter Solstice in production. Another fantastic scheduling choice from the Orange Tree Theatre, who brought this play to an english-speaking audience.
Stunning!