La pierre

by Marius von Mayenburg

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 'Brilliantly clever and funny ...exhilarating.' Independent

Genres: Plays

68 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2009

Reviews

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fifth of von Mayenburg's plays for me to read, written and first performed in 2008. It's probably the most naturalistic/realistic of his plays, without the weird flourishes that distinguishes much of his other work. It tells the tale of a house that originally belongs to a Jewish family who must flee in 1935 due to the rise of Nazism, and the family that subsequently moves in - and how their lives intersect between then and 1993.

I think the play actually makes more sense and is perhaps even more powerful reading it rather than seeing it performed, since with the rapid time shifts back and forth, and the fact that much of the cast has to enact their characters over the course of 60 years without change of costumes, would seem to be terribly confusing to work out in only seeing it. The reviews(below) seem to bear that out.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/200...
https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/...

[Gabrielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Haunting. Reading a play by a German playwright that uses Nazi & Jewish characters and historical situations is powerful, difficult, and dark. In reading it I was able to keep the pace building to a crescendo that the end of the p,ay needs — I’m curious to know with all the changes in time required if that would be achieved on stage.