Kroetz Plays: 1 - (Contemporary Dramatists) by Franz Xaver Kroetz (Paperback)

About the Book

First publication in English of Germany's most famous living playwright

Book Synopsis

This is the first collection of plays available in the UK by Germany's most famous living playwright. Spanning his work from 1972-94, the volume contains six of his most representative plays, some of which have been produced to great acclaim in this country.

Request Concert (1972) is an extraordinary silent play which shows the last moments in a woman's life before her suicide; The Nest (1975) shows the fatal action that an employee takes in order to fulfil the wishes of an employer; Tom Fool (1977) the story of an insecure Munich assembly-line worker, was a huge success, having its world premiere in four simultaneous productions in 1978; Through the Leaves (1978): 'This is an astonishing event, a reminder of the potency of realism. At a time when style tends to dominate content, it proves that nothing is more gripping in theatre than social, psychological and economic truth' (Guardian, 2003); Desire (1994) deals with the last of all taboos, a serial sex offender's release after many years.

Praise for Through the Leaves, produced in London's West End in 2003 starring Simon Callow: 'A gripping and convincing study of emotional need' Sunday Telegraph; 'A contemporary German classic' Evening Standard

About the Author

Franz Xaver Kroetz's earliest plays were influenced by the realistic, socially critical plays of ordinary life written during the 1920s and 1930s by Odon von Horvath and Marieluise Fleisser. The style, language and subject matter of his plays aroused violent reactions but by 1973 Kroetz had become Germany's most produced living playwright. His work exhibits a discordant tension between post-modern pessimism and the kind of bold exploration of taboo subjects which gives the work political and emotional credence.