Ben Goldsmith chats to Simon Sladen, the director of a new play on campus which is being produced by the German Society.

Wow! Royal Holloway has a German society? Where have you guys been hiding?

The new German Society has only been re-ratified this year, but there’s always been a German Society on campus. Our members enjoy a packed programme: visits to Germany, German film nights, visits to Bavarian Bierkellers in London, drop-in-study sessions, Christmas Market jaunts, the occassional Stammtisch and of course many socials which don’t necessarily have a German theme to them.

So what’s the game, do I have to be German to join?

You don’t have to be German to join, or a member of the German Department. You don’t even have to be able to speak German! All you need is an interest in Germany and her sister German speaking countries.

And you’re doing a play! Do you often put on productions?

We stage one production each year. This is a tradition that goes back over 25 years and we are glad that it is continuing this year. Staging a play is hard enough, but when it’s in another language it’s even tougher. The play is about making language come alive; staging a play is just one way to do this. It also allows us to encounter different texts to those studies in class, whilst improving our language. Oh, and of course, it’s a lot of fun putting on a production!

What made you chose this play?

Who wouldn’t want to stage a play where three giant comic cockroaches jump around the stage eager to devour their next victim, whilst trying to fend off the prim and proper narrators who keep stalling them by telling the story?

Sybille Berg is a great writer, her work is surreal and comic, but unfortunately this play has hardly been produced in Germany. Think Kafka mixed with Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’ and a bit of ‘A Christmas Carol’ and you’ve almost got ‘Herr Mautz’.We’re very lucky to be able to say that this is the play’s UK premiere, and Sibylle Berg herself knows that it’s Royal Holloway bringing her work to Britain.

What’s the theatre scene like in Germany, do they have a theatrical hub like London’s West End?

Germany doesn’t really have a theatrical hub, although I think if you asked anywhere to claim the title, Hamburg would. Germany still works on the rep system – local theatres are also quite generously subsidised and most produce everything in-house, unlike our current commercial touring system here in the UK. Musicals are quite a recent addition to this play going nation’s theatrical scene, but they sure do love them; they even built a theatre especially for Starlight Express in Bochum!

Give us the details: when and where is your production going on?

‘Herr Mautz’ by Sibylle Berg runs from Tuesday 9th – Thursday 11th March 2010 in Arts Lecture Theatre 1, at 7.30pm each night.

Tickets are only £4. We advise that you reserve tickes; we usually sell out as lots of colleges and schools also come. You can reserve tickets by emailing GermanSocietyRHUL@googlemail.com and then pay on the night.

And why should we go?

A UK premiere? Three Hollowegians in Cockroach costumes? Need I say more..? Oh and it’s only just over an hour long, so plenty of time for a German Beer afterwards!

Thanks Simon, and best of luck!