Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Woman Before by Roland Schimmelpfennig The Woman Before. The Royal Court has had very few disasters over the last couple of years but too few real delights. While pitch-black German existential comedies are not to everybody's taste, this hilarious and beautifully realised example is as good as it gets. The Woman Before has much in common with David Gieselmann's seminal Mr Kolpert , a play that opened here Upstairs at the Royal Court. Subsequently, it has built up a cult following and is regularly revived. In the UK, the plays have the same director, Richard Wilson, and translator, David Tushingham, and the style, themes and plotting make the two close Teutonic cousins. Only Caryl Churchill and Martin Crimp amongst British writers can compare with the Germans when it comes to this kind of experimental black comedy. We must therefore be grateful to the Royal Court for importing these and other important and very enjoyable German works; and giving The Woman Before space in the larger Downstairs Theatre. Frank and Claudia have been happily married for nineteen years. Nigel Lindsay plays the embarrassed Frank, while Saskia Reeves is his soon-to- be-wounded wife. Together with their handsome graffiti-artist son, Tom Riley's Andi, they are leaving the country for an eagerly anticipated new life. Things fall apart in an instant with the arrival of a beautiful visitor in a lime green coat. Romy Vögtlander stands on the doorstep and calmly announces that she and Frank were lovers for a summer 24 years before and that as he had vowed eternal love, she has come to collect on his promise. It cannot come as a surprise that Claudia is less than enthusiastic at the idea of giving up her husband. As the plot develops, Andi, who has just bade a final farewell to his spunky girlfriend Tina, also gets drawn in. The wide-eyed Georgia Taylor (like Riley making a successful stage debut) in the latter role is both chorus and comic storyteller. Andi is a real chip off his father's old block and in no time has forgotten his love for Tina and is seduced by Romy, the glamorous Helen Baxendale looking nothing like her character's forty-plus years. By the next morning, the visitor, cool as a cucumber, has left bizarre carnage in her vengeful wake. The Woman Before is compiled from numerous short scenes split by blackouts, lit with a green neon frame that matches the anti-heroine's coat. Time travels backwards and forwards with repetitions of action and speech that rarely seem unnecessary, as each repeat illuminates the previous scene. This wonderful play is extremely funny and oozes style. Richard Wilson excels in his direction and timing of this type of comedy and is helped by good performances all round. The 75 minutes are over in a trice and leave viewers who enjoy this kind of dream-like work wishing that the pleasure could have lasted twice as long. The Woman Before. R oland Schimmelpfennig's latest German import is full of disturbing echoes: Fatal Attraction, Pinter's Old Times, Gothic fiction. But while at 75 minutes long it has an accelerating creepiness, it also allows psychological menace to descend into conflagatory melodrama. How to describe it? It starts ominously with a ring at the door as Frank and Claudia, 19 years married, are packing their bags for a life-changing move. The unexpected visitor, Romy, claims that 24 years before Frank promised to love her for ever. Now she has come to claim her man. And, while the couple do their best to reject her, Romy insinuates herself into their lives using their son, Andi, as an unwitting accomplice. As we know from his previous plays, Push Up and Arabian Nights, Schimmelpfennig can write: the former was a sharp satire on corporate life, the latter an unnerving mix of Scheherazade and Hitchcock thriller. And here he is clearly suggesting that love is a word we use lightly. Frank swore undying passion for Romy and now can barely recall her. Meanwhile his son, Andi, makes similar vows to his girlfriend but is visibly seduceable. It all seems to confirm Byron's point that "Man's love is of man's life a thing apart, 'tis woman's whole existence." But the play is also a Pinterish battle for ownership, in which Romy and Claudia stake their separate claims for Frank. And, as long as it stays on that level, it is quietly intriguing. What troubles me is its dependence on the notion of woman as destroyer. While seeming to attack male inconstancy, it finally hinges on the idea of Romy as unhinged harpie, and we are left with a portrait of ungovernable obsession. Even if Helen Baxendale looks a trifle too young for the 40ish Romy, she exudes the right aura of implacable determination. Nigel Lindsay as Frank and Saskia Reeves as Claudia deftly suggest the habitual routine of married life. And Richard Wilson's production and Mark Thompson's design are both as sharp as a razor. But, short as it is, Schimmelpfennig's play would be even better if it ended three scenes earlier: I wanted tantalising mystery, instead of which I got the iron clang of resolution. Affairs of the heart. When a girlfriend he hasn't seen for 24 years arrives at Frank's door, claiming they are still in love, he's bemused. His wife (a cool Saskia Reeves) is understandably appalled, and we're all set for an absurdist marital comedy: Pinter's Betrayal with a better wardrobe. But it soon becomes clear that Romy (Helen Baxendale) is badly damaged, fixated on a teenage love affair Frank can scarcely remember (the monstrous egotism of first love is echoed in the subplot between Frank's son and his girlfriend). And yet nothing is what it seems in Roland Schimmelpfennig's play (in a translation by David Tushingham). Romy, who first commands our sympathy, appears increasingly manipulative, while Frank and Claudia are genuinely vulnerable. Romy seduces the son, and tempts Frank to run away with her. But then in a final scene of Greek violence, bodies are defiled and scorched. Are we supposed to take this literally? Is it a metaphor? Or another middle-aged husband getting his comeuppance? But then the penny drops. Any post-war German playwright knows all about apocalyptic guilt. The dispossessed family, the luggage in the hall, the locked rooms containing horrors. it all has a dreamlike inevitability. Performances in Richard Wilson's production are uniformly excellent, but it's Baxendale in her green coat who will blow the memory of Cold Feet's Rachel out of the water. The Woman Before. The world’s #1 eTextbook reader for students. VitalSource is the leading provider of online textbooks and course materials. More than 15 million users have used our Bookshelf platform over the past year to improve their learning experience and outcomes. With anytime, anywhere access and built-in tools like highlighters, flashcards, and study groups, it’s easy to see why so many students are going digital with Bookshelf. titles available from more than 1,000 publishers. customer reviews with an average rating of 9.5. digital pages viewed over the past 12 months. institutions using Bookshelf across 241 countries. The Woman Before 1st Edition by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Publisher Oberon Books. Save up to 80% by choosing the eTextbook option for ISBN: 9781849439183, 1849439184. The print version of this textbook is ISBN: 9781840025729, 1840025727. The Woman Before 1st Edition by Roland Schimmelpfennig and Publisher Oberon Books. Save up to 80% by choosing the eTextbook option for ISBN: 9781849439183, 1849439184. The print version of this textbook is ISBN: 9781840025729, 1840025727. The Woman Before. The play centers on the lives of Frank and Claudia who have been married 19 years and are packing their household belongings. Their move is complicated by the arrival of Romy Vogtlaender whom a teenaged Frank promised to love forever. Now she has returned to claim possession of her man. As Romy and Claudia both stake their for claims Frank, a Pinterish battle for ownership ensues via terse dialogue and cinematic-like bits of information and narrative that flash back and forth in time turning these relationships into a disquieting drama. A romance between Frank and Claudia’s teenage son Andreas and his teenage girlfriend Tina echoes Frank’s past relationship with Romy. In the end, Romy feels she must destroy all signs of Frank’s marriage in order for her bond of love with Frank to survive and to give herself hope for a renewed life. Tom's role. Andi (previous actor dropped out and Tom had 1 week to prepare for the role) Richard Wilson directs with exemplary, understated assurance, his strong cast bolstered by a promising professional debut from Tom Riley as Andi. The Telegraph.