Hanna lives on one side of the Wall that divides Berlin, and Germany as a whole. In East Germany, she works as an educator, falls in love with the man in the nice uniform and just gets on with her life. She educates the smallest of the young pioneers and facilitates the transition from nappies to the potty with regimental efficiency. Party member? No, she will not become a party member. Her husband is in the party, and that’ll have to be enough for the both of them. Her dreams take her beyond her current reality – perhaps her son who goes to acting school might after all get to play the ship’s doctor on The Dream Ship?
Then, unbelievably, the Wall falls. Gradually, the world in which Hanna has lived starts to come undone. Her husband has difficulty coping with the end of East Germany. Her son is drawn to the deep south of the so-called West, to a theatre in Munich. Childcare is an issue there.
Hanna needs little time to consider before she batch cooks enough meals to get her dependent husband through the entire performance season and trails after her son. Feminist visions from the ‘East’ and ‘West’ quickly collide – but she always maintains her resolute pragmatism.

In this fictional family history, Gerburg Jahnke explores one woman’s journey to the other side of the Wall. At a time when the Wall has fallen but is only slowly disappearing in the hearts of the people, Hanna breaks out without ever losing herself in the process. Actor Torsten Bauer assumes the role of the woman in her later years as she looks back with melancholy and amusement on her life and the cultural shock within Germany during the period of reunification.
A story based on interviews, accounts and recollections. Personal, yet fictional – and naturally with lots of music from the East with Peter Engelhardt on the guitar.

Production Staff

Director: Gerburg Jahnke
Stage: Marlena Gundlach
Costumes: Andrea Barba
Musical Lead and Musician: Peter Engelhardt
Dramaturg: Laura Mangels

Bilder

Pressestimmen

„Ein Fest für einen großen Schauspieler, der selbst ,zwei halbe Leben’ überblickt.” Ralph Wilms, WAZ

„Auf den Punkt gebracht wird das furiose 90-minütige Solo durch unsentimental vorgetragenes ostdeutsches Liedgut. Peter Engelhardt begleitet Bauer einfühlsam auf der akustischen Gitarre.” Klaus Stübler, Rheinische Post