Fireface

In its 15th anniversary year, The JMK Award returns to the Young Vic as 2012 winner Sam Pritchard directs Fireface, a fantastical story of pent-up teenage lust and rage by the German playwright Marius von Mayenburg, translated by Maja Zade.

Something’s wrong with Kurt and Olga. Suffocated by their parents and trapped in a world they despise, it seems like there’s no escape from the endless humiliation of being young. When Olga meets her first boyfriend, Kurt buries himself in a new and explosive hobby. It’s an obsession that will fuel his anger, engulf his sister and threaten to burn their world to the ground.

Marius von Mayenburg is one of the leading voices of German theatre. Propelled to success by his working relationship with the exceptional Thomas Ostermeier, who compared Fireface to Sarah Kane’s Blasted, Ostermeier made von Mayenburg his dramaturg when he became artistic director of the Schaubühne in 1999. Fireface was first seen by British audiences at the Royal Court as part of the International Playwrights Season in 2000, directed by Dominic Cooke. Other plays include The Ugly One, The Stone and Ostermeier and von Mayenburg’s sensational version of Hamlet (seen at the Barbican in 2011).

Fireface by Marius von Mayenburg in translation by Maja Zade is directed by Sam Pritchard, with design by Amanda Stoodley, light by Anna Watson and sound by Peter Rice.