Nachtland

Do you want this hanging over your kitchen table to remind you of your Daddy?

Modern day Germany.  Nicola and Phillipp argue as they clear out their late father’s house.  When they find an old painting stashed in the attic, things get savage.

The painting is a quaint street scene from 1920s Vienna; the work of a failed artist who abandoned his original vocation for Nazism.  Nicola wants to sell it.  Phillipp wants to keep it.  Phillip’s wife Judith wants to burn it.

Nachtland* is a mordant satire about marriage, legacy, the rise of the new right, and the terrible impulses buried deep.  The UK premiere is directed by 2023 Tony Award-winner Patrick Marber (Leopoldstadt).  Marius von Mayenburg is one of Germany’s foremost playwrights.  His plays include Fireface, Plastic and The Ugly One.

*Nachtland is an invented German word.  It suggests a place of eternal darkness..