by John Patrick Shanley
A fierce and heartbreakingly funny comedy – with an outcome you’d never guess in your wildest dreams.
Two fucked up individuals are washed up in a run down bar in the Bronx: Truck-driving, short-tempered Danny, whom they call “the beast” encounters Roberta – mother of a moronic son, fearless and constantly seeking for punishment. A perilous cocktail of dangerous closeness, violence, emotion and audacity clashes.
John Patrick Shanley – American Playwright, Screenwright and director of Irish descent won the Academy Award for his screenplay Moonstruck (1987), the feature film starring Cher and Nicolas Cage, as well as the Writers Guild of America Award for the category “Best Script“. 2004 he was eternalized on the Bronx Walk of Fame. His play Doubt: A Parable won the Pulitzer Prize for Theatre in 2005, the Drama Desk Award as well as the Tony Award for Best Play. In 2008 the play was made into a feature film, starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hofmann and Amy Adams; Shanley directed it himself. He directs his plays himself as well whenever he can.
Andreas Schmidt – actor and director, had theatre engagements as an actor in Mannheim, Dortmund, Bonn and Berlin. After two nominations for the German Film Prize in 2003 and 2006, he eventually won it in 2009 in the category “Best Male Supporting Actor” for Helmut Christian Görlitz’ movie Fleisch ist mein Gemüse. Apart from his work as an actor for TV and film, Andreas Schmidt also works as theatre director in Berlin. Among others, he staged the very successful Shakespeares sämtliche Werke for the Vagantenbühne Berlin which has now been running for almost 15 years. In addition to that, he staged plays for Theater am Kurfürstendamm such as Kristof Magnusson’s comedy Männerhort.
Alessija Lause – actor, daughter of a croatian mother and a german father, was born in Germany in 1980 and grew up in both countries. She had her acting debut in the German children’s TV-Show Zap Zarap at the age of six. Ever since, she has been acting in feature and TV films, as for example Q and A (D: Hans Steinbichler), Tatort – Das goldene Band (D: Franziska Meletzky), Polizeiruf 110 – Stillschweigen (D: Eoin Moore), as well as international theatre productions. She was cast member of the Argentinean theatre company “De La Guarda” and the Japanese Butoh-Company “Katsura Kahn & Saltimbanques”. In 2011 Alessija was awarded Best Actress at “The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence” at the Edinburgh Fringe for her interpretation of Roberta in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. From 2006-2011 she also worked as a stunt woman for films.
Nikolaus Szentmiklosi – actor, son of a Hungarian father and a German mother, was born in Transsylvania in 1980 and grew up at the Lake Constance in Germany. He was a successful spring- and highboard diver, before he decided to become an actor when he was 19. In 2005 he performed for the first time at the Vagantenbühne Berlin in Cherry Docs under the direction of Andreas Schmidt. Subsequently he took on a three-year engagement at the Badische Landesbühne Bruchsal. In 2009 he directed Chechov’s The Seagull at the Theater Tiefrot in Cologne, where he also played the part of Kostja. In April 2010 he directed the German version of the successful British theatre production Flhip Flhop at the Postbahnhof Berlin. In 2011 he returned to the Vagantenbühne Berlin as Liam in Dennis Kelly’s Orphans. The same year, Nikolaus was nominated for Best Actor at “The Stage awards for acting excellence” at the Edinburgh Fringe for his interpretation of Danny in Danny and the Deep Blue Sea.