"The Strange Affair of Herschel Grynszpan"
29th and 30th March 2023
Paris. 1938.
Herschel Grynszpan, at just seventeen, has arrived in Hanover, Germany, having left his persecuted family. He is frightened, lonely and confused. He is different. Neuro-divergent and queer. He is Jewish refugee in a world that feels increasingly antagonistic to his people. He feels that everyone he loves has betrayed him. His beloved cabaret is under threat from the fascists. And then he falls in love with the enemy. When he learns of the fate of his family in Poland, he feels that he can't take any more. He walks into the German embassy to confront the ambassador. But there is a terrible misunderstanding.
A gun. A diplomat. The boy shoots. And hell breaks loose.
When propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, learns of these events he is determined to stage the affair as a show trial with Herschel Grynszpan as the scapegoat. But Herschel does not want to be the boy who started the war. So. What can he do?
He can confess and tell his story. The only way he knows how.
“The Strange Affair of Herschel Grynspan”
A new LGBQT musical. Based on true events but with imagined relationships. What might have been. In a staged workshop presentation with original music, evocative music from the Weimar era and video projections.
CAST
MADELEINE MACMAHON
KILLIAN THOMAS LEFEVRE
JACK CHAMBERS
PHILIPPA HOGG
LAURIE DENHAM
AVITAL KAGAN
AONGHAS EWEN
SOPHIE JUGÉ
TRISTAN PEGG
Original Idea and Concept - LINNIE REEDMAN
Book - LINNIE REEDMAN
Composer and Lyricist - ARNOUD BREITBARTH
Video, Graphics and Sound Design - JOE EVANS
Lighting Design - ALISTAIR LINDSAY
Production Assistant - ANGIE LAWRENCE