Alice goes to Switzerland - The Test - Amygdala

Euthanasia, paternity test, brain research, these are all only secondary matters - Lukas Bärfuss`s new plays address all the big moral questions of the present day in a way which is both auspicious and playful.

Alice lives in the north of Germany and is about to make some changes. She is going to kill herself, but alcohol and tablets are out of the question. And there is to be no blood; she hates the thought of burdening her family with more work than necessary. She needs help; luckily she meets Gustav, who is in a position to alleviate her suffering, for he is a doctor. Gustav says it would be better if Alice went away to a place where it is not forbidden for him to help her.
In »The Test«, Simon Korach could probably have dealt with doubts about his paternity. But how is he to cope with a certainty that is all too unpleasant? Love, trust, nothing can withstand the sharp blade of scientific proof. What else can define a family? What can we do in the face of a truth that descends upon our lives like an axe with a new-found precision, leaving no room for doubt?
In Amygdala, two men are taking part in a medical experiment which is to investigate exactly where justice is located in our brains and in the world of social interaction.

Lukas Bärfuss
born in Thun, Switzerland in 1971, is one of the most successful dramatists to emerge in recent years, and his plays are staged all over the world. Bärfuss was voted playwright of the year in the critic poll featured by the magazine »Theater heute« in 2005. Amongst many other awards, he has also won the Mühlheim Dramatist Prize. He lives with his wife and two children in Zurich.

»The Swiss playwright Lukas Bärfuss presents to us the Greek tragedies of modern theatre in the German language«
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»The art of keeping people and words hanging in the balance between stark reality and wistful delusion characterises almost all of Bärfuss`s plays...With his new play, Bärfuss has become firmly established as hot stuff, providing top contemporary material for the German stage.«
Der Spiegel, about »The Test«

Rights sold
Bulgaria: Pygmalion Press
France: L' Arche (Alice goes to Switzerland; - The Test)