Anne-Marie die Schönheit
(Anne-Marie the Beauty)
'On the stage, I was sometimes Anne-Marie the Beauty' – in real life, the ageing actress Anne-Marie Mille is not necessarily blessed with either beauty or success, unlike her admired colleague Gigi in Paris, who is in theatre heaven by now, along with quite a few of her contemporaries. Anne-Marie views old age and advancing decrepitude with detached realism. She has fond memories of her early days at the theatre and also of the actors who strode through her home town like demigods. Hardly surprising, as the theatre was an alternative world to the young woman's family life in the provinces, so utterly devoid of cheer...
Yasmina Reza's moving and comical monologue is a sensitive portrait of a woman at the end of her life, but also an homage to the actors who didn't make it onto the great stages. It is also a satirical veiled criticism of the increasingly apparent deep chasm between truth and lies, real life and fantasy. At the express request of the French author, the role of Anne-Marie is played by Robert Hunger-Bühler in the premiere of the German-language production.
