Wir gehören zusammen – eine Nachkriegsballade
(We belong together – A Post-War Ballad)

Genre: youth play by Dominique Caillat.

Summary:
Germany 1946: American occupation zone. Place: a former café that has become a place of refuge for all sorts of war “victims” – bombed out families, refugees from East Prussia, women searching for missing sons and husbands, etc. But also: young people eager for a new life, craving for fun, freedom, jazz, cigarettes and dancing. Former nazi sympathisers cohabit with opponents, American hits clash with German sentimental songs … Youth challenge the older generations and everyone is looking for a new beginning out of the ruins: Love, misery, drama, comedy and music in post-war defeated Germany.

Cast: 23 youth actors.

Length: 2h 20.

Music:
Soundtrack with German and American music from the 40s.

Public: youth (12+) and adults.

Production:
Premiered in 1999 at Castle Namedy. Director: Dominique Caillat. Rhineland-Palatinate Tour as part of the Cultural Summer Festival. Invitation to the Burgfestspiele Mayen, performances at the Goethe Institut in Brussels und in the House of History (Haus der Geschichte) in Bonn.

 

 

Reviews:

“Caleidoscope of human destinies… Astonishingly symbolically loaded songs… Lively songs... Refreshingly relaxed....”
(Rheinzeitung Feuilleton)

“A remarkable play... A successful direction... A play in which words often fail, in which body language and music often say more than anything else... in which one often has shivers down the back.”
(Rheinzeitung Koblenz)

“The actors have studied the problems of life in post-war Germany intensively… and did real psychological theatre work... A convincing story and performance by the talented young actors of the 'Theater in der Vorburg'.”
(Bonner Generalanzeiger Feuilleton)

“It got under one's skin...”
(Stadtzeitung Andernach)

A spectator:
“I have seen your play We Belong Together and need to tell you how impressed I was. I have never before experienced or felt anything like it. Thank you and continue!“
(Beate Szislowski, after the performance at the Castle Mayen Festival)