The End of the Road

Language: 
English
Genre: 
Drama
Year of publication: 
2010
Length: 
Full length
Synopsis: 

A Girl visits her grandmother in a country close to the Russian border in order to spend the Christmas with her. She has brought her video camera to record her grandmother telling of old times. But grandmother worries about the weather and making the bus and avoids her granddaughter's questions. Together the two women visit the cemetery to light candles for grandfather, they wake through a sleepless night, chat over uneaten bread and wait for the bus. The Girl tries to find out what it was like when those Russian soldiers came but for grandmother's memories of last week's trip with the club to a glass factory, grandfather's smoking habit, and finally his death are more readily shared than the Russian occupation during which she lost her home. As time passes, the old woman admits that talking of the displacement is too painful and the Girl finds a way to accept it. On boxing day, the Girl leaves alone to catch the bus to Helsinki. This is a quiet, poetic play about open questions between generations. Written in short lines with many repetitions, a lot remains unspoken of – yet, like in real life, a great deal happens between the lines. (Tinfo/Sunklo)

Roles: 
Number of male actors: 0
Number of female actresses: 2
All role: 2
Adapted to summer theatre: 
No
Premiere in professional theatre: 
No
Premiere in amateur theatre : 
No
Other performances: 

Winner of the Stückemarkt Prize in 2007. German translation performed at the Berliner Theatertreffen on 17th May 2007 (staged reading), München Kammerspiele on 29th September 2007, and at Deutsches Theater in Göttingen. World premiere was at the Maxim Gorki Theater on 20th December, 2007. Also performed at the Burgtheater, Vienna on 10th February 2008 and as a radio play at the Deutschlandradio Kultur in 2008.