It was first performed, in Dutch, by Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the Netherlands' largest repertory company, in Amsterdam, as part of its 1996–1997 season, and directed by Titus Muizelaar,[1] who reprised his production, in Dutch with English surtitles, as part of a double bill with Buff, by Gerardjan Rijnders, at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, from 23 through 27 June 1998.
The one-act play opens with Devlin and Rebecca, described as "Both in their forties", talking in what appears to be a home living room on an early summer evening.
As the play develops, it becomes clear that Devlin and Rebecca are probably married, although their relationship to each other is not defined explicitly; it must be inferred.
Initially, Devlin seems Rebecca's husband or lover, her therapist, and potentially her murderer.
Some critics have described their discussion as more between a therapist and his patient than between two lovers or between a husband and a wife.
[3] Devlin questions Rebecca in forceful ways, and she reveals personal information and dream-like sequences to him.
In their first exchange, Rebecca tells of a man who appears to be sexually abusing her and threatening to strangle her (1–27).
Rebecca tells Devlin that she told the killer, "Put your hand round my throat" (3)—an act which Devlin acts out directly towards the end of the play (73–75), asking Rebecca to "Speak.
In response to Devlin's further inquiries about her "lover", Rebecca relates several dream-like sequences involving the man who she has quoted initially (7–27).
She tells Devlin that this "lover" worked as a "guide" for a "travel agency" (19).
This place turns out to be "a kind of factory" peopled by his "workpeople" who "respected his .
But then she tells Devlin, "He used to go to the local railway station and walk down the platform and tear all the babies from the arms of their screaming mothers" (27).
Devlin replies that the police are always busy, and thus another siren will start up at any time and "you can take comfort in that at least.
(33–39)In another monologue Rebecca describes herself looking out the window of a summer house and seeing a crowd of people being led by "guides" toward the ocean, which they disappear into like lemmings (47–49).
After another "Silence" (71), instead of responding, Rebecca describes another sequence, where she is standing at the top of a building and sees a man, a boy, and a woman with a child in her arms in a snowy street below (71–73).
At that point (73), Devlin approaches Rebecca and begins to enact the scene described by Rebecca at the beginning of the play, directing her to "Ask me to put my hand round your throat" as she has earlier described her "lover" as doing (73–75).
The last scene of the play recalls cultural representations of Nazi soldiers selecting women and children at train stations en route to concentration camps (73–85).
Finally, Rebecca (or the woman or women with whom she has identified from such past historical events) is forced to give her baby wrapped in "the bundle" ("the bundle" being a synecdoche for the baby wrapped up in a shawl) to one of the men.
(83–84)Ashes to Ashes was first performed, in Dutch, by Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the Netherlands' largest repertory company, in Amsterdam, as part of its 1996–1997 season, and directed by Titus Muizelaar,[1] who reprised his production, in Dutch with English surtitles, as part of a double bill with Buff, by Gerardjan Rijnders, at the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, from 23 through 27 June 1998.
The characters of Rebecca and Devlin were played by Christine Boisson and Lambert Wilson.
[2] Ashes to Ashes was revived in Spring 2001 in a double bill with Mountain Language, directed by Katie Mitchell, at the Royal Court Theatre, which went on to be performed at the Harold Pinter Festival at the Lincoln Center Festival 2001, in New York City, in July and August 2001.
[7] A special creation for the 16th edition of the Europe Theatre Prize was performed by Isabelle Huppert and Jeremy Irons at Teatro Argentina, Rome, on 17 December 2017.