After Midnight

based on the novel by Irmgard Keun
Dramatic adaptation by Gottfried Greiffenhagen

Directed by: Irene Christ
with Johanna Marie Bourgeois

48 hours in 1936. Nineteen-year-old Susanna chronicles - at first with exuberant vitality and satirical humor - the events unfolding around her: her passionate love for Franz, with whom she envisions a future; the altered behavior of those close to her; life under the "racial laws"; in short, the new normality: daily existence under Nazi rule. Hitler's appearance before an enthusiastic crowd at Frankfurter Opernplatz becomes the turning point for momentous events. The noose tightens. Denunciations become routine. "Mothers inform on daughters-in-law, daughters on mothers-in-law, brothers on sisters, sisters on brothers... neighbors on neighbors." Within a short span of time, Susanna transforms from a humorous observer into someone caught in the midst of it all, forced to grow up. During an elaborate celebration, just before midnight, she must make a life-altering decision. Action unfolds after midnight.

Irmgard Keun, a literary sensation in the 1930s and later rediscovered, wrote the novel "After Midnight" while in exile. It was published in 1937 in the Netherlands. With her earlier novels "Gilgi, One of Us" and "The Artificial Silk Girl" she achieved sensational success. Gottfried Greiffenhagen's monologue adaptation distills Keun's great novel into a desperately cheerful and ruthlessly perceptive theatrical piece.