Christmas on the Balcony

Christmas on the Balcony
(Noël au balcon)
by Gilles Dyrek
Translated by Annette and Paul Bäcker

CAST: Philipp Dürschmied, Marc-Philipp Kochendörfer, Margarete Lamprecht, Elias Popp, Theresa Fassbender and Hugo Ziegler
DIRECTED BY: Tonio Kleinknecht
SET DESIGN: Ariane Scherpf
COSTUMES: Birgit Barth
DRAMATURGY: Tina Brüggemann

At last - Christmas, the festival of love and promises, is in full swing at two Parisian households. But instead of a cosy gathering around a laden table, the home balconies become a scene of frantic coming and going. Sitting quietly is simply too much to ask when Grandma injures herself on her grandson's piercing, the sister brings home her third Christophe in a row, the doctor turns out to be a butcher, a real baby Jesus follows the fake Santa, and so on. By the end, every generation has been put through the wringer, and after navigating family chaos, the silent night finally arrives.

GILLES DYREK composes in this piece a linguistic symphony in which the six-member cast plays both families and shines with witty and rapid-fire dialogue. Born in Paris in 1966, Dyrek trained at the École National Supérieur des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre. His early works "L'éléfant s'enferme dans la salle de bain pour jouer avec les robinet" and "Le Projet Titre Provisoire" were already successful in France. His comedy "Venise sous la neige" (Venice in the Snow) has been performed by over 30 theatres in German-speaking countries (in Aalen in 2017, directed by Tina Brüggemann), and his family comedy "Christmas on the Balcony" is a classic (not just) for the Christmas season.