Students from UVic\u2019s Performing German Drama class had to study up on their German before their new play (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u201cIt\u2019s been a very interesting experience, especially since we\u2019re not all native German speakers,\u201d says Burritt, who, along with other English-speaking members of the cast, had to use dialect coaches to master the language for the performance. \u201cThe rest of us not only had to figure out our characters, but also exactly what we\u2019re saying and how to pronounce it, so it\u2019s been really unique that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The play, written by German playwright Friedrich D\u017arrenmatt, is an absurdist tragic comedy about a wealthy woman who returns to her hometown, which is completely dilapidated and filled with ridiculously poor townsfolk. Soon, everyone is trying to impress the woman in hopes that she will turn the town around financially.<\/p>\n
But the story turns dark from there.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe offers to donate $1,000,000,000 to the town if they murder her ex-boyfriend, who jilted her 45 years prior,\u201d explains Burritt. \u201cSo it\u2019s a really weird premise, and the play starts out very humourous and absurd and over-the-top, and then it becomes more serious and heavy-handed as it shifts from comedy to tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now in their third year of performing, the Germanic studies students (under the tutelage of UVic professor Elena Pnevmonidou) are responsible for mounting the production, including sets, costumes, acting, and directing. The performance of Der Besuchen der alten Dame<\/i> features three student co-directors, as well as several leading actors who were already fluent in German.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely very student-driven,\u201d says Burritt, \u201cwhich is unique to any other course I\u2019ve taken because our professor is there to help, but she\u2019s very much in the background and encouraging us to take the leading roles in putting this play on.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the entirely German dialect for the production, Burritt says that although the play is meant to be staged in front of primarily German audiences, it\u2019s not impossible to understand for English speakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is spoken in German, so it\u2019s somewhat difficult to get the idea if you haven\u2019t heard of the story before, but at the same time the way that the play is staged isn\u2019t very subtle, and it\u2019s pretty abrupt,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause it\u2019s absurdist, a lot of the humour is really in your face.\u201d<\/p>\n
Der Besuchen der alten Dame
\n<\/i>8 pm, Friday, December 5 and Saturday, December 6
\n$5, Merlin\u2019s Sun Home Theatre (1983 Fairfield Road)
\ngmst488.weebly.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students in UVic\u2019s Performing German Drama class are readying a two-night run of a dark comedy entitled Der Besuchen der alten Dame (roughly translated to The Visitor), performed entirely in German. And if that sounds like a vast undertaking, it\u2019s because it totally is, according to UVic student Caitlin Burritt, who performs two supporting roles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,136],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-november-26-2014"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9984"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9984\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9986,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9984\/revisions\/9986"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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