As Happy As God In France
“Who arrested us? Who is starving us? Will the Communists save us? You trust Uncle Joe?”
Written by Julia Pascal
Directed by Eric Parness
Date: Thursday, June 3, 2021 at 2:00pm Eastern Time
Language: English
Website: Facebook Event
Synopsis
France. May 1940. Political writer, Hannah Arendt, visionary artist, Charlotte Salomon and Communist schoolgirl, Eva Daube, are three of thousands of European exiles living in France. When these German Jews as arrested by the French as ‘undesirables’ they are transported to Gurs, near the Spanish border. Arendt, Salomon and Daube, live eight weeks as prisoners of the French. As news of the imminent German occupation filters through, they must decide how to escape and, if they do, to go where?
Sourced by interviews, and French and German archives, As Happy As God In France, tells a little-known war history. Stylistically this work is a mixture of political cabaret, theatre of cruelty and naturalism as it explores morality, nationalism, exile and survival. It catches the moment when German women were stripped of their identity by their own nation and when the French government categorised them as ‘the scum of the earth’.
About the Playwright
Julia Pascal is a playwright, director and scholar. Her dramas have been produced in the UK, Europe and the USA and published by Oberon Books and Faber. They have been seen on BBC Television and heard on BBC radio. Pascal’s plays are inspired by reluctant histories and frequently focus on war, exile and trauma. She is a Research Fellow at King’s College, London University and has taught at NYU, London University and the University of York where she gained her PhD.
Cast
Ita Korenzecher
Elizabeth A. Davis
Glenna Forgue
Susan Ferrara
Rachel Cofsky
