About the Play:

Over There is a full-length political satire by Mark Ravenhill. Karl, left in East Germany by his mother who escaped to the West with his twin brother, crosses the border 25 years later in search of Franz, his other half. As history takes an unexpected turn, the brothers must struggle to reconnect.

"I found you. You're here. And I was over there. But now I'm over here. I'm here. You're my brother. I love you."

Over There is an allegory of competing ideologies set across both the Berlin Wall and consumer driven America. When the mother of identical twins, Franz and Karl, defects to the West, she escapes only with Franz, leaving Karl behind. Twenty-five years later, Karl crosses the border from East to West Germany to find his other half. The two men have an intense shared connection. They know scraps of each other's lives without speaking or seeing each other, they speak in unison, yet the gulf of ideology and upbringing between them is insurmountable. When the Berlin Wall comes down, the physical barrier between them is removed, but the struggle to connect and find unity lives on. Mark Ravenhill's chilling play examines the urges and hungers released when two ideologies, two brothers, from opposite sides of the wall meet again.

Over There premiered in 2009 at the Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre Downstairs in London. The play has been performed in regional repertory, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 2 men

What people say:

"Ravenhill explores postwar Germany's division and unification through the power battles between twin brothers. The result is fantastically clever and ingenious... Ravenhill's premise is both witty and plausible." — The Guardian

"In chilly, bizarre scenes of strikingly spare dialogue, Ravenhill deftly conjures a succession of meetings between the men over five years – before, during and after the fall of the Wall." — Variety

"Slowly, Ravenhill uses [the actors] to reveal differences in their cultures and outlooks, each protective of his own country, while inquisitive about the alternate life that could so easily have been his own." — British Theatre Guide

"For a play that is brash and flashy in many regards, its beauty lies in the subtle way that it builds emotion and tension. Through the twins, Ravenhill masterfully traces the virulent euphoria of the fall of the Berlin wall, the initial fascination with the ‘other’ who is at once deeply familiar and entirely alien, and the gradual souring of a relationship that becomes fraught with jealousy and resentment." — CafeBabel

"[Ravenhill] opts for dreamy expressionism, touches of Absurd Theatre and an allegoric preface and epilogue set in the Californian heart of capitalism." — The Evening Standard

About the Playwright:

Mark Ravenhill is an English playwright, actor, director, and journalist. He studied English and Drama at Bristol University from 1984-1987, and held down jobs as a freelance director, workshop leader and drama teacher. After staging a short piece, Fist, as part of the I'll Show You Mine season of shorts at London's Finborough pub theatre venue, he was prompted to write a larger scale work that burst on to the theatre scene in 1996 as the huge hit Shopping and F***ing. One of the most distinctive contemporary UK playwrights, he was appointed Associate Director of London's Little Opera House at The King's Head Theatre in September 2010. He played an active role in the venue's relaunch as London's third Opera House. In 2012, he became Writer in Residence at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). He often writes for the arts section of The Guardian.