About the work
“Volksvernichtung oder meine Leber ist sinnlos” (roughly: Extermination of the People, or My Liver Is Pointless) is a play by the Graz dramatist Werner Schwab, subtitled “A Radical Comedy”. It belongs to the “Fäkaliendramen” (Faecal Dramas), published as a collection in 1991, and premiered in November 1991 in the Werkraum of the Münchner Kammerspiele, directed by Christian Stückl.
Plot
The setting is an apartment building. On the ground floor live Frau Wurm and her adult son Herrmann, who torment each other with insults and murder fantasies; above them lives the Kovacic family with their daughters Desiree and Bianca. When the landlady, Frau Grollfeuer, invites everyone to her birthday party, long pent-up aggression erupts violently.
Cultural significance
The play won the Mülheim Dramatists' Prize in 1992; in the same year the magazine Theater heute named him playwright of the year.