Plays

• "Steinwald's"
  premiered at Schauspiel Leipzig, 1994
• "Drei Tage im Mai" ("Three Days in May")
  premiered in the Wittenberg Summer Festival, 1996
• "Das kalte Herz" ("The Cold Heart")
  premiered at Theater Chemnitz, 1996
• "Engel und Dämonen" ("Angels and Demons")
  premiered in the Wittenberg Summer Festival, 1998
• "Nachtschwärmer" ("Lovers of the Night")
  premiered at the Bühnen der Stadt Bielefeld, 1999
• "Selbstportraits. 48 Details" ("Self-Portraits. 48 Details")
  premiered at the Bochum Schauspiel, 20011

"Nachtschwärmer" ("Lovers of the Night")

Night after night three sisters vanish from their room and the following morning they are found in bed, their shoes worn down by dancing. Their father has the windows and doors barred; a local radio station broadcasts live from the girls'bedroom every morning; and a reward is offered for any nightwatchman who throws light on the sisters' secret. However these watchmen are knocked out by a sleeping potion so that in the morning they have nothing to report except a terrible headache while the sisters once again lie in bed with bloodied feet. Until one day a jobless former frontier guard applies for that task. Curiously, his overcoat gains the magic power of making him invisible. He follows the three young women into an enchanting and at the same time threatening underworld where there is a gold and silver wood, dark lakes, a mermaid, a talking bird, and a phantastic castle. Three princes are waiting for the sisters, men with a sombre past and a mysterious power of attraction. They have been banished and will only be redeemed if these girls dance through the night with them, time after time. Just twice more, and the sisters will be able to take their dream princes along into the upper world, into the here and now. However the spy destroys this vision. The following morning, when the young women are again lying in bed, apparently so innocently but with shoes worn through, he betrays their secret to the father and the radio reporter. An attempt to capitalise on this sensation doesn't work out. Access to the underworld is sealed for ever and the dream is over. The young women flee to a bar where their profound disappointment is gradually alleviated by recognition that the upper world may also offer them enticing prospects.



In his many-sided text Thomas Oberender interestingly mixes motifs from fairytales with contemporary feelings about life. The Grimm Brothers' "Shoes worn out with Dancing" serves as the basis for an image-full depiction, rich in metaphors, of the process of three adolescent girls' separation from a father incapable of understanding. Oberender carries the audience away into a subterranean dreamworld which can be both a kingdom and a discotheque - and at the same time an embodiment of the unconscious. Different levels of action are skilfully interwoven and classical and modern elements elegantly linked. The sovereign deployment of language is particularly worthy of mention. With its choice of "Lovers of the Night" the jury would also like to encourage the development and implementation of more complex plays in German youth theatre, depicting the reality of young people's live in similarly unusual ways.
(from the Jury's evaluation)

Technical Data
Premiere	Theater der Stadt Bielefeld, 19.05.2000
Director	Regula Gerber
Number of performers	4 females, 4 males
Rights	Verlag der Autoren GmbH & Co. KG Schleusenstr. 15 DE - 60327 Frankfurt/M. Telefon: +49 69 238574-20 (Theatre) Telefax: +49 69 24277644 theater@verlag-der-autoren.de www.verlag-der-autoren.de
Translations	none