Schauinsland
The Misfortune of the English
Music-Theater by Kommando Himmelfahrt
Text by Pamela Carter
Commissioned by Theater Freiburg
It’s cold. The snow is falling thicker and thicker. Schoolboys in shorts struggle through the rugged Black Forest. Why are they here? It’s already eleven o’clock at night, too late to turn back. Darkness and dense fog surround them, making orientation impossible. Have they reached the summit already? Finally, the sound of a bell pierces through the storm; perhaps it’s their salvation.
On April 17, 1936, 27 English boys between the ages of 12 and 17, accompanied by their teacher, ascend the mountain Schauinsland despite a predicted winter storm. They are in high spirits, expecting adventures as they explore unfamiliar Germany on the eve of World War II. However, the excursion ends in a catastrophe that continues to shape their family histories and those of the rescuers from the village of Hofsgrund. Five boys do not survive the hike.
The music theater collective Kommando Himmelfahrt tells the story of the historical “Misfortune of the English” as an atmospherically dense music theater composition for a narrator, a singer, eight children, chamber orchestra, and deep bass drones. The text for this project, created by the renowned English author Pamela Carter, assembles fiction and facts, observations from the children, and poetic digressions into a linguistically powerful allegory about male communities, deadly heroism, and the indomitability of natural forces.
Premiere on June 19, 2021, at Theater Freiburg
In English and German with German subtitles.
