Mary

Mary ticks all the boxes when it comes to prejudice towards the so-called underclass: pregnant teenager, low income, no close-knit family, identity of baby’s father unknown. But Mary wants to improve her situation, is ready for the slings and arrows, and is ploughing her private, single-minded furrow. It’s a life punctuated by a change of job, the death of her grandmother and the unassisted birth of her child, a life whose only constants are permanent insecurity and her emotional solitude.

With his modern take on the Mary myth, Simon Stephens has produced a striking portrait of a woman for the 21st century, one that admits the possibility of tenderness and self-determination in a frigid world. The much-feted director David Bösch, known for the well-founded psychology underpinning his productions, is making his debut in Nuremberg.

Photo © Konrad Fersterer