Play: You Shall Give Me Grandsons (english), reading directed by Sheena Khalid
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhaven Mumbai and Tamaasha Theater have collaborated for a series of dramatized reading of translated scripts of contemporary German plays. titled ‘Das Schauspiel’. Each of these script readings will be directed by young theatre directors from Mumbai under the mentorship of Sunil Shanbag.
The second play to be read under this series is "You Shall Give Me Grandsons" by Thomas Jonigk.
About the play:
A mother tries to persuade her son to marry and fulfill her desire for family growth and continuing lineage. However, the sociology student in his 27th semester is attracted only to men. None of the pressures his mother creates show any effect. Then a Catholic priest presents an overly thick, wife-to-be for the son with the biblical name Maria. The son is ready to commit to a childless marriage on the condition of being allowed to escape from the family's restrictions. But the mother relentlessly demands grandchildren. Adding to their woes are complicated familial ties and quirks of each individual.
About Thomas Jonigk:
Thomas Jonigk was born in 1966 in Eckernförde. As director, dramaturg and influential author of his generation he writes novels, librettos, plays and screenplays and worked at several important theaters such as the Schauspielhaus of Vienna and the Berliner Volksbühne.
His works have been translated into various languages. In 2009, Jonigk and the translator Bernard Banoun won the Prix Amphi for the best non-French novel, Vierzig Tage (Forty days, 2006), which was rendered into French. Five years later his thrilling book Liebesgeschichte (Lovestory) came out at Droschl.
»Jonigk deals with all topics by means of drastic wit.« (Der Spiegel, German weekly magazine)
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