James Brown trug Lockenwickler (JAMES BROWN WORE CURLERS)

Did you understand what she was trying to say? - No. But I didn’t like it.

Pascaline and Lionel Hutner are dismayed: their son Jacob is Céline Dion. Not only does he dress like the famous singer, he has also started talking with a French Canadian accent and is liable to burst into her songs at any moment, appropriate or otherwise. His parents hope that therapy in an institution will be able to cure him. However, to their even greater dismay, the therapist not only accepts how Jacob sees himself, she also advises his parents to make their peace with his chosen identity. Under her guidance, they attempt to normalise their relationship with the teenager, but what does normal actually mean? Is this psychiatrist, whose style of driving consists of never using the brakes, in her right mind herself? The view of the world the parents had believed was unshakeable starts to falter. While they look for a way in to their child’s world, it becomes increasingly clear that they will have to lose their son if they accept him the way he – or she – thinks he – or she – is.

Yasmina Reza, the celebrated author of hit social comedies such as «The God of Carnage» and «Life x 3» and bestselling novels – most recently «Serge» – has written a new play that incisively dramatises the profound problems of understanding that increasingly dominate relations between generations. 

In Philipp Stölzl, who directed «The Inheritance» by Matthew Lopez at the Residenztheater last season, Yasmina Reza’s chosen director stages the world premiere of her latest work.