Roland Schimmelpfennig – författare

A tale for today set in a magical tower block where the water has gone missing and five extraordinary individuals from the east and from the west cross paths on a hot and enchanted evening ending with a moonlit kiss and a homicide. Arabian Night is a sleek and sensual urban thriller from one of the most acclaimed voices of the German stage. Nominated Play of the Year by six German critics in 2001, ATC staged the UK premiere of Arabian Night in April 2002, and toured the play throughout the UK in April and May.

"A highly original and often hypnotic work . . . exactly the type of book that readers in search of striking European voices should embrace" John Boyne, author of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMASA contemporary Berlin fairy tale that bristles with urban truths - the first novel of Germany's best-known contemporary playwrightOne clear, ice-cold January morning shortly after dawn, a wolf crosses the border between Poland and Germany. His trail leads all the way to Berlin, connecting the lives of disparate individuals whose paths intersect and diverge. On an icy motorway eighty kilometres outside the city, a fuel tanker jack-knifes and explodes. The lone wolf is glimpsed on the hard shoulder and photographed by Tomasz, a Polish construction worker who cannot survive in Germany without his girlfriend. Elisabeth and Micha run away through the snow from their home village, crossing the wolf's tracks on their way to the city. A woman burns her mother's diaries on a Berlin balcony. And Elisabeth's father, a famous sculptor, observes the vast skeleton of a whale in his studio and asks: What am I doing here? And why? Experiences and encounters flicker past with a raw, visual power, like frames in a black and white film. Those who catch sight of the wolf see their own lives reflected, and find themselves searching for a different path in a cold time. This first novel of Germany's most celebrated contemporary playwright is written in prose of tremendous power and precision. Translated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

A thrilling, filmic immersion into Berlin's legendary club scene - a skillfully told novel about the fragility of life.Berlin, Görlitzer Park: The body of a young woman in a white wedding dress floats in the canal. Who is she, and where does she come from? Suspended drugs investigator Tommy trawls Berlin's clubs and criminal clans to uncover the woman's story.On his odyssey through the city, he meets survivors and fighters, the lost and stranded from all over the world: from the Japanese tattoo master to the Indian fire-eater. Wide awake and dead tired, suspended between a dreamscape and reality, Tommy dives deeper and deeper into the Berlin underworld and into his own past. A breathless noir novel that is as hard-hitting as it is emotional, exploring the fragility of life and our longing for community.PRAISE FOR One Clear, Ice-cold Morning at the Beginning of the Twenty-first Century"A highly original and often hypnotic work . . . exactly the type of book that readers in search of striking European voices should embrace" John Boyne (author of THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PYJAMAS), Irish Times"A brilliantly kaleidoscopic morality tale"- Eileen Battersby, Financial Times"A magnificent achievement, a novel of terrific originality" - Charlie Connelly, New European"The exhilarating narrative is wonderfully concise, and the imagery is intensely cinematic" - Barry Forshaw, GuardianTranslated from the German by Jamie Bulloch

Roland Schimmelpfennig is the most performed contemporary German playwright. This collection demonstrates the breadth and formal innovation of his writing.The Animal Kingdom depicts the unremitting battle for human survival in a merciless environment: the theatre.Peggy Pickit Sees the Face of God has been likened to a post-colonial Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Here two doctors who have returned from Africa reveal the true cost of their failure to combat a terrible and frightening disease.Idomeneus is a narrative play written for a large chorus which re-tells the classical Idomeneus myth in contemporary terms; a fractured, mythic tidal wave, brought to life with astounding theatricality by an ensemble of storytellers.A small narrative piece, The Four Points of the Compass is an urban fable of crossed destinies and uncanny coincidences and a compelling contemporary tale of lust for life and the fragility of existence.

‘A promise is a promise. A promise is a promise.’Idomeneus, King of Crete, has killed his son. Or maybe not. Maybe he's let his son live, but angered the gods in doing so. Or maybe the person he thinks is his son is an imposter. Maybe his real son actually turned into a talking, shape-shifting sea-creature and is back to have a heart-to-heart. Or maybe it's all true, all at once. A kaleidoscope of monsters, mythmaking and sudden, striking humor, Roland Schimmelpfennig’s smash-hit Idomeneus details the end of a war between nations and the beginning of a war between reason and superstition. Idomeneus makes a promise to the gods, and what comes next is a fractured, mythic tidal wave, brought to life in an inventively staged quest-story.

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 the UK premiere of Roland Schimmelpfennig’s razor-sharp comedy.

"You swore that you'd love me for ever' Frank doesn't recognise the woman at the door. She's come to remind him of a promise he made twenty years before. A darkly humorous study of modern relationships and the things we say that may come back to haunt us. The Woman Before opened at the Royal Court Theatre in May 2005."

Number 6: Thai soup with chicken, coconut milk, Thai ginger, tomatoes, button mushrooms, lemon grass and lemon leaves (hot).On a typical evening, anywhere in Europe, you walk into your local Thai/Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant, and the whole world is there. Everyone connected to everyone else, through this one place…The Golden Dragon is a funny and theatrical fable of modern life and migration, whisking you from your local takeaway to East Asia and back, revealing what really goes into that bowl of spicy soup. Are you hungry yet?

A savage satire on the rapacious nature of office lives and lusts - the British debut from a writer whose work has been seen in prestigious theatres all over Germany.Everyone wants to get to the executive suite. Everyone wants the Delhi job. Everyone wants sex, everyone wants love. So, they push for it.Roland Schimmelpfennig's play Push Up was first performed at the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin, in November 2001. It was premiered in this English translation by Maja Zade at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in February 2002.

Roland Schimmelpfennigs pjäser framkallar en inlevelse i den totala orättvisa som råder mellan samhällsklasserna men också i livet självt – vi är alla utsatta, offer för ödet, slumpen, begär, känslor. Samtidigt slår hjärtat hela tiden i hans dramatik, det slår vilt i texten, på scenen och mellan replikerna. I Schimmelpfennigs pjäser berättar gestalterna, som sällan har namn, om andra, vad de tänker eller känner; vissa repliker låter som scenanvisningar eller kommentarer. Dramat blir epos och hämtar kraft från romankonstens alla möjligheter. Vi blir uppmärksamma på allt som ingen egentligen kan veta.