Am 22. März war das White Horse Theatre mit drei englischsprachigen Stücken bei uns zu Gast.

Für unsere Jüngsten gab es mit „The Dark Lord and the White Witch“ diesmal ein Stück, das an „Herr der Ringe“ angelehnt den Kampf zwischen Gut und Böse darstellt. Die Mittelstufe setzte sich anhand des Stückes „Success Story“ kritisch mit Identitätsfindung, gesellschaftlichen Erwartungen und der Rolle sozialer Medien auseinander. Die Oberstufe durfte eine Umsetzung der frühen Shakespeare-Komödie „A Comedy of Errors“ mit viel Slapstick und Wortspielen erleben. Ihre Eindrücke haben unsere Schüler in kleinen – natürlich englischen – Rezensionen festgehalten:

Underearth in Danger: The Fight between Good and Evil

The play “The Dark Lord and the White Witch” is about a bad wizard and a good witch and all the people of Unterearth.

Everything starts with the Daisy-Chain-Festival. The beautiful girl Gala has the best daisy chain and becomes daisy chain queen. Then comes Ginhilda the white Whith and tells them the dark Lord’s plans to destroy Underearth.

Ginhilda wants Gala to defeat the dark Lord. An exciting journey takes Gala to the castle of the dark Lord. On the way she meets Slightly, a handsome and interesting man, and Gloop, an ugly guy. But who is good and who is evil?

The play was very funny, the actors where really talented and on the stage there were very interesting props. What we didn’t like so much was, that we didn’t understand everything.

But: You have to see it for yourself :) It’s really worth it!

(Hanna Weida, Lisa Schlimper, Matilda Anders, Xenia Khavaev, class 6s)

“A Success Story” – The Dream of Being a Success

Simon wants a girlfriend, Sally has a crush on Simon and Phil is bad at school. All of a sudden they find themselves in the TV-show "Love in white coats" and become the persons they have always wished to be. They fall in love. Phil, a doctor star, is also fond of Sally.

The actors also involved us in the play, asking questions or using a guy for the role as a driver and as a patient. This was so funny! The audience laughed or applauded.

I was pleased with this play. The actors did their job well and they were able to create a whole scene with only a few props and a simple set. The costumes’ colours were simple but fit the characters. There was a lot of outfit changing in the show. I enjoyed the accompanying music, the special sounds and the decorations of the show. Another good thing was the question time at the end.

Anyway, they sometimes spoke or screamed loudly and a few actions were strange and embarrassing.

But still, if I were you I would definitely watch this show!

(Gillian Arnold, Julia Herrmann, Kati Fischer and Lucia Holz, class 9b)

“The Comedy of Errors”

“The Comedy of Errors” is a hilarious drama following the story of two sets of identical twins, separated at birth because of a shipwreck. 18 years later, Antipholus of Syracuse and his servant Dromio of Syracuse coincidentally end up in the same town – namely Ephesus – as their twin brothers Antipholus and Dromio of Ephesus. In order to not completely confuse the audience, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse were represented wearing blue clothing by the actors, and their brothers wore red clothing.

Their names being equal is only the beginning of it all. Antipholus of Ephesus’ wife Adriana wonders where her husband is. She is expecting him for dinner, so she sends his servant Dromio of Ephesus to look for him. Dromio then finds a man who he mistakes as him, when in reality he finds Antipholus of Syracuse, his twin. The resulting comedic scene sets the tone for the mistaken identity and the following chaos further awaiting the audience throughout the rest of the play.

There were also many instances, in which humour and interaction with the audience were used. When any one Dromio feared getting beaten, he would run into the audience to seek and beg for help. The actor of Dromio would often run around the audience and even sat next to a viewer hugging him, which showed his desire for emotional support. On another occasion, the actors even asked a viewer to participate in the play and let her come onto the stage to help within the scene, resulting in astonishment, amazement and amusement within the audience.

In the end scene, both sets of twins meet. This initially results in the biggest confusion of the whole play, but furthermore puts a light in the dark of irritation. Throughout the entire play, Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse and their twins could only be separated through their clothing by the audience. Now all of them meet. The actors had a brilliant idea to still make the scene somewhat understandable to the audience. Antipholus’ and Dromio’s props were split vertically, so that one half of them was covered in blue (Syracuse) and the other half was covered in red (Ephesus). When they spoke, they only turned one side to the audience. This way the two actors could play two roles each simultaneously.

To put it concisely, the four actors of the White Horse Theatre used minimal props but made the most possible out of them, successfully delivering a hilarious drama about mistaken identity. It wasn’t easy to understand everything in the play, due to the language used being Shakespearean English and the overall nature of the story being intentionally confusing. The characters they played were always portrayed with stereotypical behaviour and a maximum amount of humour, which, in effect, made it easier to follow along the story. In addition, the audience got involved a lot in the play, making it an unforgettable enjoyment for every single one in the room.

We would like to thank the White Horse Theatre for performing “The Comedy of Errors” at our school.

(Aaron Mann, year 11)