Marius von Mayenburg

NACHTLAND

After their father’s death, siblings are clearing out the family home. In the attic, they stumble upon a dusty painting – a cityscape of early 20th-century Vienna. The artist's signature is barely legible, but the technique makes it clear that the painter was an amateur, and the piece has little to no artistic value. However, upon closer inspection of the signature, a shocking fact emerges: it was painted by a notorious figure in their youth, someone without whom the previous century in world history would have been entirely different.

Suddenly, what was once a worthless streetscape by a brush-wielding nobody becomes a unique art object worth thousands. At least in the eyes of some family members it is an opportunity to land a fortune. Others, on the contrary, believe the immoral painting should be destroyed, thus atoning for the past suffering. Still others want it preserved as a family relic. The previously harmonious family finds itself divided over the fate of the painting, and uncontrollable passions boil over spiralling into a dark comedy.

Following the success of How To Lose a State (2023), Toms Treinis returns to Dailes Theatre with another provocative piece. Together with his creative team, he presents a morally and ethically charged question – should those who suffered under fascist regimes be allowed to profit from the infamous legacy of the ideologues? In one of the most performed plays in Europe in recent years, German author Marius von Mayenburg’s healing satire confronts uncomfortable truths, exploring how any family might be affected when faced with a choice between morality, justice and prosperity.