The Stone

Synopsis

A house in Dresden becomes the focal point for three generations of a German family grappling with their past and the lies they’ve told themselves.

Witha, the matriarch of the family, weaves an intricate web of deception about her family’s actions during the Nazi era. As the play jumps between different periods from 1935 to 1993, we witness how Witha’s fabrications about her husband Wolfgang’s heroic resistance against the Nazis shape her daughter Heidrun’s understanding of their family history, and in turn, influence her granddaughter Hannah’s sense of identity.

Von Mayenburg crafts a searing examination of historical memory, guilt, and the legacy of Nazism in post-war Germany. Through a series of interlocking scenes that blur past and present, the play explores how successive generations deal with inherited trauma and the moral complexities of life under totalitarianism. As the truth about the family’s complicity in the persecution of their Jewish neighbours gradually emerges, the play poses a haunting question: In a society built on collective amnesia and self-deception, can we ever truly confront our past, or are we doomed to perpetuate its lies to live with ourselves?