Thornton Wilder - Wir sind noch einmal davongekommen

The world in crisis mode. Humanity in self-destructive impotence. From all sides, the threat of wars, of climate catastrophe, of pandemics. The end of the world, the inevitable end is near. Or maybe not? Will we get away with it again?

In 1942, the American Thornton Wilder wrote "We got away with it once more", a play about mankind plagued by catastrophes and the struggle for a constant new beginning. In 2020, the graduating class of drama students of the August Everding Theatre Academy, directed by Marcel Kohler, planned to research this red-hot material anew. However, due to the Corona crisis, rehearsals and the stage premiere of the production had to be cancelled for the time being.

Instead, however, the premiere is now taking place online. The team is working on Wilder's play via video conferencing, taking this theatrical exceptional situation into account. The production will be performed live in the actors'* apartments on the scheduled premiere date on April 16th and can be streamed via the Theatre Academy's YouTube channel.

How does an evening at the theatre, which was created without physical contact, alone in isolation, work? What influence does the current crisis situation have on a play in which the characters are pushed from one crisis to the next? Where do theatrical fiction and reality come together? And to what extent does the material perhaps even benefit from this very special and novel form of theatre making?

Text: Theatre Academy August Everding