Roland Schimmelpfennig

Maria and Karl want to get married. But the boy next door is away, and without the boy, the pair can’t wed. Karl goes looking for the boy and brings him back. The boy has a missing eye.
Karl and Maria celebrate their wedding. Maria wants to go away with Karl to build a new life together – open a bakery or a cheap hair salon.
On the night of the wedding, Karl’s brother Fritz shows up. Karl is supposed to go with him: Fritz knows someone that is looking for a couple for their hair salon. It’s urgent. Karl leaves without his wife. He puts the wedding ring on Maria’s finger while she is sleeping.
Maria has now been waiting for Karl for a year. Franz, Karl’s father, convinces Maria to marry him. But she can’t get Karl’s ring off her finger any more. Maria sends the boy to look for Karl before she gets married. She gives him a big knife to take with him.
At night, Karl comes to Maria and wants to take her away with him. He is now the owner of the hair salon. He has murdered the boy. Karl claims to have written to her. Maria never got his letters.
Roland Schimmelpfennig’s characters are unsettling, and their story remains a mystery…
“Things are not easy. They might seem easy, because they seem to follow a pattern. Every character sees the story from a different side. Which one should I pick out and tell? In the end, someone is right and someone is wrong – but can you say definitively who? Franz? Maria? Karl? (not, that I don’t know) – Or no one is right and no one is wrong: those are the worst plays of all – I have tried to explain why life is hard for Maria, Karl, Franz and the others. It’s hard.” (Roland Schimmelpfennig)