Thomas Hürlimann

An evening in early September of 1996, in the villa Laetitia in Z.
In celebration of the 70th birthday of Max Meier-Labiche, his wife Marietta hosts a party for an intimate circle of friends and family. The birthday boy, who alongside his increasing senility also suffers from paranoia, turns the supposedly harmonious celebration into chaos, with place cards being hidden in vases and uninvited guests. Marietta’s complaints about this mischief cause her two sceptical children to be seriously concerned about the mental state of their mother. “Pre-senile dementia with paranoid tendencies” is their absurd diagnosis, which now seems confirmed by every remark, every action of their poor harassed mother.