Ugly One

Lette thought he was normal. When the extent of his ugliness is revealed he turns to a plastic surgeon for help. But after the bandages come off, Lette soon learns that there is such a thing as too beautiful. 'Owing glancing debts to Mary Shelley and HG Wells, Mayenburg's 60-minute play squarely hits any number of targets: our society's obsession with external beauty, the brutality of capitalism, and the danger of treating defining organs like mechanical parts. But, deftly translated from German by Maja Zade, the play makes its points with the lightest of touches.' Guardian The Ugly One is a scalpel-sharp comedy on beauty, identity and getting ahead in life. The play is published as a programme text edition to coincide with its British premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 13 September 2007.

For all its humour and satire on beauty and the homogenisation of the human race, the play is also a deeply complex reflection on identity that sees four actors take on eight roles, switching between characters and scenes with surreally seamless fluidity. The Independent "Marius von Mayenburg's savage social satire...highlights the dangers of living in a society with rigidly conformist notions of physical perfection...Mayenburg's point [is] that we inhabit a modern vanity fair where identity is up for grabs." Michael Billington, Guardian, 13.06.08 "A cautionary fairytale for the modern age. Maybenburg takes his scalpel to the current fixation with makeovers, botox and surgery, with size zero and the struggle to preserve youth at all costs...But...he does all this with a twinkle in his eye." Sarah Hemming, Financial Times, 17.06.08 "The Ugly One...is a metaphysical teaser and a theatrical dare." Susannah Clapp, Observer

Marius von Mayenburg is a German playwright and translator whose previous plays include Fireface, which premiered at the Royal Court in 2000 and was published by Methuen Drama, Parasites and The Cold Child.