“The Wave” – Theatre performance at “Akademie der Künste”
On the 8th of November 2021, we, as one of the Dreilinden-Gymnasium’s ...
“The Wave” – Theatre performance at “Akademie der Künste”
On the 8th of November 2021, we, as one of the Dreilinden-Gymnasium’s English Advanced courses in Q3, took a trip to the Academy of Arts to see a play performed by the American Drama Group Europe, which is currently touring Germany with the play “The Wave”. This experience was quite a memorable one and we collectively agreed that it is one to recommend.
The theatre visit was planned very well: we all sat in the front row and had the perfect view of the stage. Additionally, the actors spoke very clearly, and the performance was easy to follow. The play started off a little confusingly with someone passionately playing air guitar, having us wondering just what we had gotten ourselves into, but we quickly got immersed in the captivating story.
The play itself is based on a true story from 1969 that was turned into the book “The Wave” by American author Morton Rhue. History teacher Ben Ross, after questioning how people could follow the Nazis in the Third Reich, sets up an interactive experiment with his students to educate them about the rise of the Nazi party: He founds a movement in the school called the Wave. The Wave takes off and spreads throughout the whole school and the experiment ends in disaster.
In the reviews our course has given, the students agreed on the importance and seriousness of the topic that were presented very well while still bringing forth an aspect of humour and light-heartedness. The play had indeed quite a charm to it. The musical elements and performances through songs linked the scenes very well, showing a swift and entertaining change of the rather simplistic stage, built of dull-coloured boxes in varying constellations and setups.
Even with just five actors, the drama group managed to portray a good number of characters convincingly, giving each their own aura. The moral of the story was brought across clearly. Students said that “the story was coherent, and it was really cool to see it develop on stage”, while someone else mentioned the benefits of native speakers performing an English play would help the students improve on their pronunciation as well! Personally, I would recommend the play to other classes because it covers historical and psychological along with philosophical aspects and portrays a thought-out storyline in a fitting and impactful way.
To sum up, our course had a very good time visiting the play “The Wave”, taking new memories and maybe even new takes on questions away from it. It was an experience that can only be recommended! In the name of us students, thanks to everyone who made this experience possible and special thanks to our teacher Mrs Schroeren, for making us to go there and witness such an incredible performance!
Katharina Wagner (Q3)