The Disappearance of Josef Mengele: the one-man show adapted from Olivier Guez's novel, extended

It's becoming increasingly common for novels to be adapted for the stage, and this is once again the case with Olivier Guez's best-selling biographical novel, La Disparition de Josef Mengele. The novel, adapted for the stage by Mikaël Chirinian in the form of a one-man show, will run at La Pépinière Théâtre from September 2, 2025. Warning: the play is forbidden to children under 14.

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The Disappearance of Josef Mengele plunges us into 1949: Josef Mengele arrives in Buenos Aires under an assumed identity, the former Auschwitz doctor-torturer thinking he can build a new existence for himself. In the Argentina of Juan and Evita Perón, favorable to Nazi refugees, and a world context focused on forgetting the atrocities of the Third Reich, Mengele begins a life of wandering in South America. His flight led him to a mysterious end on a Brazilian beach in 1979. How did this former SS doctor escape justice for three decades and live with such impunity?Olivier Guez 's biographical novel explores this dark story in a one-man show performed by Mikaël Chirinian, and directed by Benoit Giros .

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The novel explores Nazi support networks, political complicity and the blindness of an era ready to turn the page on war crimes. With precise, captivating writing, Olivier Guez paints a chilling portrait of Mengele's impunity and solitude, which Mikaël Chirinian should portray in his one-man show. The Disappearance of Josef Mengele won the 2017 Prix Renaudot, brilliantly blending fiction and historical reality.