Christmas Eve.

Bettina and her husband Albert aren’t happy.

Bettina’s mother is staying for the holidays.

Which is awkward.

Not least because Bettina’s mother met a man on the train.

And now she’s invited him around for drinks...

Family, betrayal and the inescapable presence of the past reverberate through the UK premiere of Roland Schimmelpfennig’s razor-sharp comedy.

Reviews

'Roland Schimmelpfennig may not be a name that trips off the tongue, but it is one that should stick in the mind since, in Winter Solstice, he has written the most exciting new play I have seen in years... Schimmelpfennig’s writing, in David Tushingham’s pitch-perfect translation, and the expertise and commitment of the cast make for an evening as electrifying as any epic.' The Express ★★★★★

'The visit of the unexpected stranger is a familiar element of drama as with Goole in Priestley’s The Inspector Calls or with Goldberg and McCann in Pinter’s The Birthday Party in both of which plays the stranger challenges the status quo and leaves it utterly changed. This is also the premise of Roland Schimmelpfennig’s brilliant new play Winter Solstice at Richmond’s Orange Tree Theatre in a clever translation by David Tushingham directed by Ramin Gray. As with Priestley and Pinter there is a metaphor at work – though a quite subtle one... Winter Solstice, like An Inspector Calls leaves one unsure who the visitor really is – his mystery is intact. As Rudolf puts it we may reach conclusions but are they the “right conclusions from the wrong hypothesis”… or the wrong conclusions form the right hypothesis”. As you leave the theatre after this extraordinary play you won’t be quite sure!' London Theatre 1 ★★★★★

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, a fascist went raving, spewing out essentialist propaganda within earshot of his unwitting, awkwardly polite hosts' young child... Schimmelpfennig's masterstroke is not in constructing this compelling situation though, but in how he has his characters describe their actions as they perform them. The cast not only speak their lines, they speak their stage directions too, allowing a whole world of concealed frustrations, desires and anxieties to surface in bursts of delectably dry comedy...An exciting, experimental German import full of biting satirical humour.' The Stage