Martyr

Benjamin won't do swimming at school. His mum thinks he's on drugs or has body issues. But Benjamin has found God and mixed-sex swimming lessons offend him. Fundamentalism and tolerance clash in this funny, provocative play by leading German playwright, Marius von Mayenburg. Martyr considers how far we should go in accommodating another's faith, and when we should take a stand for our own opposing beliefs.


About the Author

Marius von Mayenburg studied mediaeval literature in Munich and Berlin, and playwriting at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 1998 he began a collaboration with Thomas Ostermeier at the Baracke at Deutsches Theater in Berlin and, from 1999, at Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz, Berlin. He was awarded the Kleist Prize for young dramatists for his first play Fireface (1997) and the Frankfurt Writer's Foundation Prize (1998). His plays have been translated into over thirty languages and performed both in Germany and abroad. Since 2009 Marius von Mayenburg has directed several plays in Berlin and Munich. Mayenburg has also translated plays by Sarah Kane, Martin Crimp and Shakespeare.

Maja Zade was raised in Germany and Sweden and studied at London University, Queen's University in Canada and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. She was Senior Reader at the Royal Court Theatre in London from 1997-99. She is a dramaturg at the Schaubühne Berlin, where she has worked with directors such as Thomas Ostermeier, Katie Mitchell, Ivo van Hove, Luk Perceval, Benedict Andrews and Marius von Mayenburg. Her translations into German include works by Lars von Trier and Caryl Churchill, and she has translated works by Marius von Mayenburg, Roland Schimmelpfennig and Lars Norén into English.