EGAL

A comedy by Marius Mayenburg

Imagine you’ve been home alone with the kids for a week, your significant other returns from a business trip, and hands you a gift. How do you feel? Are you grateful? Do you wonder if your partner feels guilty? Do you wish they’d ask how you’re doing? Or how the kids are doing? Or how the week went?
All these thoughts are running through Erik’s mind when Simone comes home—on top of the hints she’s dropped about her boss; he feels like she doesn’t care how he’s feeling. Simone, on the other hand, is simply exhausted, happy to see her family again, and thought she’d make Erik happy with her gift. But every sentence she utters is interpreted as a reproach, every facial expression is loaded with meaning, and every nod is taken as a sign of resignation.
The career woman, who feels suffocated by her job, misses her bed while on a business trip—while her husband, who can only swap housework for something more creative through occasional editing and translation gigs, envies her ability to get away. Thus, Simone and Erik become entangled in an argument that turns into a fundamental discussion about their roles within the relationship—and, with it, the question of whether they still matter to each other or are simply indifferent.

Marius von Mayenburg was born in Munich in 1972; he works as an author, translator, and director. After first studying medieval German literature and then playwriting, he began writing plays in 1997 and, two years later, worked as a dramaturg in Berlin. His best-known works include “Feuergesicht,” “Der Stein,” as well as “Ex” and “Ellen Babić,” which, together with “Egal,” form his so-called “lockdown trilogy.”

Premiere: Saturday, November 7, 2026

Small Stage