Just the end of the world (drama)

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data
Title: Just the end of the world
Original title: Juste la fin du monde
Original language: French
Author: Jean-Luc Lagarce
Publishing year: 1990
Premiere: in October 1999
Place of premiere: Théâtre National de la Colline , Paris
persons
  • Louis : an HIV positive writer
  • Martine : his mother
  • Suzanne : his sister
  • Antoine : his brother
  • Catherine : his brother's wife

Simply the end of the world (original title Juste la fin du monde ) is a play by Jean-Luc Lagarce published in 1990 , which premiered in October 1999 at the Théâtre National de la Colline in Paris and celebrated its German premiere on November 8, 2001 at the Bremen Theater .

contents

It has been a long time since the now 34-year-old Louis left his family without saying goodbye. From then on Louis had traveled the world and made a career as a writer, far from the rural idyll. After the family had not heard from him for years, he announced his visit after twelve years, and his unexpected arrival causes the family, especially his mother Martine, to be extremely upset.

Once at his parents' house, the anticipation of his loved ones fades, and soon you stop talking about trivialities, and Louis is confronted with accusations that he still knows from before. Actually, Louis had come back to say goodbye to his family, because he has had AIDS for years and knows that he will soon die. However, since his family is too busy reproaching him and arguing among themselves, he does not get around to conveying this news to them personally. Louis also notices that he has distanced himself very emotionally from his family through his long absence.

The author

Lagarce, who was born in the Haute-Saône department in France in 1957 , was, like the protagonist of his play, HIV-positive himself and died on September 30, 1995, two weeks after the completion of his last text Das ferne Land (original title Le pays lointain ) of AIDS at the age of 38 in Paris. Lagarce wrote the drama while working in Berlin and did not see it when it was first staged in 1999.

Release and premiere

The play was premiered in October 1999 at the Théâtre National de la Colline in Paris and celebrated its German premiere on November 8, 2001 at the Theater Bremen . The drama is published in a German translation by the theater publisher Felix Bloch Erben .

reception

Awareness of the piece

Lagarce is one of the most played authors in France, and Juste la fin du monde was a school reading for many years after Lagarce's death in France .

Productions

In 2020, Christopher Rüping brought a production of Simply the End of the World to the stage of the Schauspielhaus Zurich . The free text adaptation differs in parts clearly from its original. B. Valeria Heintges on Nachtkritik.de:

“In Zurich, the returnees succeeded in what both Lagarce and Dolan failed to do: he found the courage and the moment to tell his family that he was terminally ill. (...) This is the culmination of an evening in which the actors - politely and waiting at first, then more and more relentlessly and mercilessly and consistently great in their performance - hit each other with old and new expectations and disappointments. "

The production was positively received by the critics and invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2021. In addition, the production won the awards for the best production of the year as well as for the two actors of the year ( Benjamin Lillie and Maja Beckmann ) in the critics' survey by Theater heute .

filming

On May 19, 2016, Xavier Dolan presented his cinematic adaptation of the play with Simply the End of the World as part of the Cannes International Film Festival , where he was awarded the Grand Jury Prize. In the film, the enfant terrible of the family film after I Killed My Mother and Mommy is once again concerned with his favorite subject. It's like don't say who you are! (Original title Tom à la ferme ) from 2013, based on the play of the same name by Michel Marc Bouchard , to Dolan's second adaptation of a play. Dolan cast the main role of Louis with the actor Gaspard Ulliel . The film will be released in French cinemas on September 21, 2016. A theatrical release in Germany is planned for December 29, 2016.

expenditure

  • Lagarce, Jean-Luc: Juste la fin du monde , Editions Les Solitaires Intempestifs, Berlin, 1999. ISBN 978-2-84681-364-8 .
  • Lagarce, Jean-Luc: Simply the End of the World , translation into German by Uli Menke, 2007.

Individual evidence

  1. Simply the end of the world In: lagarce.net. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  2. Simply the end of the world In: felix-bloch-erbe.de. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  3. Simply the end of the world - Schauspielhaus Zürich. Retrieved February 12, 2021 .
  4. Valeria Heintges: Simply the End of the World - Schauspielhaus Zürich - Christopher Rüping stages Jean-Luc Lagarce's drama of a final homecoming to the family. Accessed February 12, 2021 (German).
  5. Egbert Tholl: "Simply the end of the world": Premiere at the Schauspielhaus Zurich. Retrieved February 12, 2021 .
  6. Berliner Festspiele: The selection of 10 2021 - Theatertreffen. Retrieved February 12, 2021 .
  7. Everyone! In: Theater Today. Retrieved August 26, 2021 .
  8. Tim Caspar Boehme: Summary of the Cannes Film Festival. Reality should fix it In: taz, May 23, 2016.
  9. Kalle Somnitz and Anne Wotschke: The 69th Cannes Film Festival In: biograph, June 2016. Accessed June 8, 2016. (PDF; 15 MB)
  10. Frédéric Jaeger: Simply the end of the world In: critic.de, May 19, 2016.
  11. Juste la fin du monde In: solitairesintempestifs.com. Retrieved June 8, 2016.
  12. Simply the end of the world In: theatertexte.de. Retrieved June 8, 2016.