German Play 2010

"Glaube, Liebe, Hoffnung" by Ödön von Horvath

Report on the play by Rosie Howgill, Second year student

Horváth's "Glaube Liebe Hoffnung" is perhaps not the world's most uplifting play; the period in which the piece is set, the Great Depression in the 1930s, has some disturbing parallels with today's difficult economic period; but it was a lot of fun to produce.

Following the protagonist Elizabeth's struggle in a world which seems to be totally against her, the wrenchingly emotional play is nevertheless grimly funny and highly entertaining, including a marvellous antistriptease from our very own Alfons Klostermeyer.

The cast spent the first few weeks of rehearsals getting to grips with various acting techniques through a variety of amusing drama exercises, including hot seating and improvising.  Following casting, rehearsals rapidly moved onto characterisation, motivation and, of course, the dreaded line-learning.  The cast were delighted to eventually move onto the stage and start working in the performance space as the play finally started to come together.  In the final frantic weeks, there were moments where the cast and crew were not convinced they could pull it off, but the eventual performance went down brilliantly and congratulations should go to each and every person involved.