Arrive early, and you’ll see the cast tidy a load of junk: Nicola and Philipp are sorting their dead dad’s stuff. When the play begins, the stage is clear – except for a watercolour stashed in the attic. It’s a tame sepia view of a church with a signature that looks awfully like “A. Hitler”. “The Hitler?” gasps Nicola’s husband. Well, yes.
In Marius von Mayenburg’s snappy 2022 play, set in Berlin, the wrangling sibs (Dorothea Myer-Bennett and John Heffernan, both terrifically narky) and their spouses are flummoxed. They enlist an expert (a crisp Jane Horrocks in arthouse specs) whose grandpapa was Hitler’s curator. She finds a mysterious buyer (Angus Wright) and her valuation eases the slide into fibs and filth. The family boasted anti-Nazi credentials (“not least for aesthetic reasons”), but must now boost the painting’s backstory. Heffernan’s faded T-shirt says “Faust” – he sells his soul without a struggle.
