Past Productions
2025 Season
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Tartuffe
By Molière
A timeless comedy that exposes the folly of blind faith and hypocrisy. The story follows Orgon, a wealthy man who falls under the spell of Tartuffe, a cunning impostor posing as a pious and virtuous guest. As Tartuffe schemes to seize Orgon’s fortune and manipulate his household, the family must unite to reveal the truth before it’s too late. ate the power of reason and honesty.
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The Pillowman
By Martin McDonagh
A dark, gripping drama that delves into the twisted mind of a writer whose disturbing stories mirror a series of chilling child murders. With McDonagh’s signature blend of dark humor and intense suspense, The Pillowman challenges audiences to confront the power—and consequences—of narrative. This provocative piece is a must-see for those who appreciate theater that pushes boundaries and provokes deep reflection.
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Carmilla
By David MacDowell Blue
A chilling and passionate exploration of love, identity, and darkness. Set in a haunting mansion, the story follows the mysterious Carmilla and her unsettling bond with the young Laura. Through atmospheric storytelling and rich character development, this adaptation weaves suspense and emotional intensity, capturing the timeless allure of vampire lore while celebrating queer themes with haunting elegance. A must-see for fans of classic horror with a modern twist.
2024 Season
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Medea
by Euripidies
Translated by Diane J. Rayor
Passion and betrayal spark a tragic story of love, revenge, and human limits. Betrayed by Jason, Medea faces harsh consequences. This intense play explores loyalty, vengeance, and justice, revealing deep emotions and the cost of betrayal.
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God of Carnage
by Yasmina Reza
Translated by Christopher Hampton
What begins as a polite conversation quickly unravels into chaos as suppressed frustrations and primal instincts surface, revealing the raw and often hilarious truths about human nature and social pretenses. This intense, character-driven drama brilliantly captures the complexities of adult relationships with biting wit and surprising emotional depth.
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The Cherry Orchard
by Anton Chekov
Set on a Russian estate facing financial ruin, the story follows an aristocratic family grappling with the sale of their cherished cherry orchard. Through a blend of humor and melancholy, Chekhov reveals the clash between old traditions and new realities, making this timeless play a powerful reflection on nostalgia, progress, and the complexities of human nature.
2023 Season
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Hot Sho(r)ts Short Play Evening
An evening of self-produced plays
A thrilling mix of short self-written plays, blending laughter and suspense. Enjoy fresh tales performed by passionate amateurs in Heidelberg—where creativity and community unite on stage.
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Suddenly Last Summer
by Tennessee Williams
Suddenly Last Summer, a one-act play by Tennessee Williams, exposes a dark family secret beneath polite society. Set in a Southern summer, a woman confronts a doctor to reveal her cousin’s mysterious death. Themes of madness, repression, and secrets challenge the price of truth. A tense, emotional drama that captivates and provokes.
2022 Season
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The Mistress of Wholesome
by Jacob Appel
Set against a backdrop of small-town intrigue, the play delves into themes of morality, deception, and the complexities of human desire. With its clever dialogue and richly drawn characters, Mistress of Wholesome challenges audiences to question what it truly means to be “wholesome” in a world full of secrets and contradictions.
2021 Season
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Hot ShortsFighting Lockdown Blues
At last, after a theatre-less year, we performed six new plays written by members of the Schauspielgruppe in the English Department garden.
2020 Season
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Confusions
by Alan Ayckbourn
A sparkling ensemble comedy of tangled lives, sharp misunderstandings, and perfect comic timing. Confusions strings together five interlocking short plays set in the same London flat and pub, following a cast of charmingly eccentric characters whose attempts at love, escape, and self-improvement collide in increasingly hilarious and poignant ways. With Ayckbourn’s trademark wit and pinpoint observation of human foibles, Confusions delivers quick-fire dialogue, physical comedy, and moments of surprising tenderness. Ideal for lovers of classic British farce and warm, character-driven humor — expect laughs, gentle heartbreak, and a cast of unforgettable, perfectly mismatched souls.
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It Takes Two
Seven short audio plays about relationships.
"We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it.“ (John Lennon)
One of the most basic human needs: the need for connection. One of the most difficult things to achieve and maintain: connection.
Due to the COVID lock downs, this was produced as an audio online performance.
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The Prisoner of Cell 13
by Jacques Futrelle
Adapted by Neville TellerA brief mystery by Jacques Futrelle — follows a brilliant, unassuming mastermind who wagers he can free a man from the locked Cell 13 using only intellect and clever contraptions. Tension builds with each device and twist as the escape nears success—and danger.
A taut, fast-moving tale of puzzle-solving and suspense, perfect for fans of classic detective fiction and for stage: compact, dramatic, and ripe for inventive staging.
Due to the COVID lock downs, the was produced as an audio online performance
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Love Letters
by A.R. Gurney
A tender, bittersweet exploration of friendship, memory, and the quiet ache of what might have been. Told entirely through the exchanged letters of Andrew Makepeace Ladd III and Margaret “Maggie” Anderson over five decades, Love Letters traces the shifting contours of two lives — their hopes, failures, joys, and the small, unspoken devastations that shape them. With clarity, wit, and a deep compassion for its characters, Gurney’s play reveals how intimacy can endure across time and distance even when circumstances and courage fall short.
Due to the COVID lock downs, this was produced as an audio online performance
2019 Season
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The Father
by Florian Zeller
A sharp, heartbreaking portrait of memory and identity, The Father by Florian Zeller follows an elderly man determined to live independently as the world around him shifts and slips away. Told through his fractured, sometimes contradictory perspective, the play immerses the audience in the disorienting experience of dementia—where rooms, relationships, and time rearrange without warning. Zeller’s spare yet powerful writing blends dark humor with moments of unbearable tenderness, revealing how love and loss intersect when a life’s certainties unravel.
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Alarms and Excursions
by Michael Frayn
A sharp, witty collection of short plays that skewers modern family life, domestic mishaps, and the absurdities of social convention. Frayn’s lightning‑fast dialogue and cleverly constructed situations expose the comic chaos lurking beneath polite facades: misdelivered messages, bungled responsibilities, and the small emergencies that escalate into farce. Ranging from gentle satire to biting irony, these pieces showcase Frayn’s gift for timing and for finding the universal in the petty crises of everyday life. Perfect for audiences who love smart, character-driven comedy with a distinctly British sensibility—comic, humane, and endlessly surprising.
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The Getaway
by Paul Liedvogel
In the year 2004, dementia sufferer William Malone is on the verge of losing his mind. As reality recedes, his past comes flooding back. In an attempt to save a suppressed memory, he records himself telling the story of a haunting event. 41 years ago, when William was an advisor at a summer camp, a 14-year-old boy got lost, never to be found again. Will’s manifesto is full of lies, dead ends, artificial memories, and apologies for something he can’t quite put his finger on.
2018 Season
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12 Angry Men
by Reginald Rose
Twelve jurors, one verdict, and a single room where truth and prejudice collide. Reginald Rose’s Twelve Angry Men is a taut, character-driven drama about a murder trial’s jury deliberations. What begins as a near-unanimous vote for guilt slowly unravels as Juror Eight raises doubts, forcing each man to confront evidence, personal bias, and moral responsibility. With razor-sharp dialogue and a relentless focus on character, the play examines justice, civic duty, and the fragile line between certainty and reasonable doubt. Tense, humane, and unflinching, Twelve Angry Men remains a powerful portrait of democracy in action and the courage it takes to stand alone for the truth.
2017 Season
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The Philadelphia Story
by Philip Barry
A sparkling comedy of manners, The Philadelphia Story by Philip Barry follows Tracy Lord, a witty and wealthy socialite whose glamorous wedding plans are thrown into delightful disarray when her ex-husband and a tabloid reporter arrive uninvited. As secrets, old loves, and social expectations collide, Tracy must confront who she really is—and who she wants to be. Witty, tender, and acutely observant about class and marriage, Barry’s play crackles with sharp dialogue, memorable characters, and a warm heart beneath its glittering surface. Perfect for lovers of romantic comedy and sharp satire alike.
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Arsenic and Old Lace
by Joseph Kesselring
A deliciously dark comedy that mixes warmth with wickedness. In a cozy Brooklyn brownstone, sweet elderly aunts Abby and Martha Brewster charm visitors with homemade elderberry wine — and a penchant for “mercy” killings of lonely old men. When their nephew Mortimer discovers the macabre truth, chaos erupts: an eccentric cast of relatives, a lovable drunken brother who thinks he’s Teddy Roosevelt, and a dangerously handsome criminal brother with murder on his mind all collide in farcical, riotous fashion. Fast-paced, full of absurd surprises, and scathingly funny, Arsenic and Old Lace is a timeless satire about family, sanity, and the thin line between kindness and criminality. Perfect for audiences who relish laughter tinged with the deliciously morbid.
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Black Comedy
by Peter Schaffer
A blackout never looked so bright. Peter Shaffer’s Black Comedy is a razor-sharp farce about appearances, truth, and the chaos that happens when night falls—and the lights go out. Set in a London sculptor’s cluttered studio on the eve of a lavish dinner party, the play kicks off when a faulty fuse plunges the apartment into total darkness. In the pitch-black mayhem that follows, identities are mistaken, secrets tumble out, and decorum dissolves into delicious bedlam..
Fast, witty, and full of physical comedy, Black Comedy is a dazzlingly entertaining evening that keeps the audience laughing as truth and farce collide. Perfect for lovers of clever stagecraft and high-energy comedy.
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The Project
by Jeff Silence
Seven people stumble through the business of living — first dates derailed by criminal records, marriages held together by baseball statistics and bad timing, friendships built on bad judgment and mutual catastrophe — while a whiskey-drinking, increasingly unreliable narrator tries and mostly fails to keep them in line. The characters rebel. The projector breaks. Nobody stays in their lane.
Part absurdist comedy, part meditation on what it means to make something — a relationship, a piece of writing, a life that doesn't fall apart at the first house party — The Project is a play that knows it's a play, and isn't sure that's a problem.
2016 Season
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Seven Interviews
by Mark Dunn
Seven Interviews is a razor-sharp ensemble comedy that peels back the polished façades of ambition, relationships, and identity. Through seven brief, brilliantly crafted interviews, Mark Dunn takes us on a fast-moving tour of characters trying — and failing — to present a tidy version of themselves. Each scene is a complete, compact revelation: witty, awkward, and surprisingly tender. The play’s clipped dialogue and brisk pacing reveal how little we know about one another, even as we try to control the story we tell.
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Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
Betrayal, ambition, and the dangerous art of persuasion collide in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. Set in ancient Rome at the brink of civil war, the play follows the fallout from Caesar’s rise to power and the conspirators—led by Brutus and Cassius—who decide his death is necessary for the republic. Themes of honor versus expedience, public duty versus private loyalty, and the power of rhetoric are explored through tense plotting, moral uncertainty, and some of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches, including Marc Antony’s masterful funeral oration.
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The Tempest
by William Shakespeare
A storm. An island. Magic and mischief.
The Tempest follows Prospero, the displaced Duke of Milan, who conjures a violent tempest to shipwreck his usurping brother and other nobles on the enchanted island where he has lived in exile with his daughter, Miranda. With the help of the airy spirit Ariel and the enslaved, earthy Caliban, Prospero engineers encounters that force reckonings of power, betrayal, forgiveness, and the limits of revenge. Love blooms between Miranda and the shipwrecked Ferdinand, while courtly plotting, comic buffoonery, and supernatural spectacle collide in a play that moves from furious control to a poignant surrender of magic.
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A.D.A.M.
by Lewis Wood
Victor Stone has to prove himself. After crashing the stock market, the computer sciences student sets out to accomplish what has never been attempted before: the creation of artificial intelligence. Suffering of OCD and depression, Victor has to rely on his friends Henry and Elizabeth. But what starts out as a challenge to himself could potentially destroy more than just his work.
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Hot Shorts - UNESCO Creative Cities'
With guests from the Unesco Cities of Literatre Norwich, Dublin, Iowa and Dunedin (NZ)
Supported by the City of Heidelberg
2015 Season
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Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead
by Burt V. Royal
After the death of his beloved dog, CB retreats into grief and sarcasm, only to find himself tangled in the difficult, dizzying mess of high school life: shifting friendships, first crushes, and the cruel rituals that define teenage identity. In this sharp, darkly comic reimagining of the Peanuts gang as disaffected adolescents, CB tries to make sense of sex, religion, bullying, and loss while confronting the hypocrisy and loneliness that lurk behind suburban smiles.
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Richard III
by William Shakespeare
A gripping portrait of ambition, manipulation, and the corrosive cost of power, Richard III follows the ruthless rise of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, as he schemes, lies, and murders his way to the English throne. Charismatic and chilling, Richard breaks the fourth wall to draw the audience into his cold, calculating mind—confessing sins, mockingly courting sympathy, and reveling in his own cunning. As alliances shift and bodies pile up, the play asks how far one man will go to seize control and what remains of honor, family, and country in the wake of his ascent.
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H.C. Andersen - Two Tales in Song and Motion
In cooperation with the Anglistenchor
Aufgeführt werden die mit dem Pulitzer-Preis gekrönte „Little Match Girl Passion“ von David Lang sowie „Nightingale“ von Ugis Praulins — zwei Stücke, die wie die ihnen zugrunde liegenden Märchen mit ganz unterschiedlichem Charakter aufwarten und bestechen — gerade in der besonderen Akustik der Peterskirche.
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How It Was
by Laurence Williams
The lives of five university kids and the bizarre ordeals that university brings as they take their first steps into adulthood are contrasted with an old couple at the tail end of theirs. A comedic drama about what it takes to grow up and when it's appropriate to embrace your inner child.
2014 Season
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Another War Story
by Katrin Pfändler
Imagine you meet someone. Imagine you find that someone attractive. Imagine you like his looks, her smile, his voice, the way she talks, the way he treats you. Imagine you get nervous when that someone is around. Imagine you want to be close to her, get to know more about him. Imagine that someone feels the same way about you.
Imagine you fall in love and the only thing that stands between you and that specific someone is six years of war.
And yet, it is 1945, the war is over.
How do you stop fighting in a soldier's mind? How do you forget about 'nation' if it is what you have killed for? How do you escape from the ones that have been shot and burned and raped?
It is 1945, but when is the war over?
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Proof
by David Auburn
Proof is a gripping drama about genius, love, and the fragile line between brilliance and madness. When celebrated mathematician Robert Harrington dies, his brilliant but emotionally battered daughter Catherine is left to reckon with his legacy: a trove of unpublished notes, her own uncertain future, and the question of whether the brilliant proofs in those pages are her work or a symptom of the very madness that claimed her father.
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My First Time
by Ken Davenport
A charming, honest, and often hilarious exploration of first experiences—romantic, awkward, and unforgettable. My First Time weaves together a collection of true stories from celebrities and everyday people, revealing those small, messily human moments that shape who we become. With warmth, wit, and surprising tenderness, the play celebrates the universal awkwardness of beginnings: first kisses, first jobs, first heartbreaks, and the first time we learn something about ourselves.
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Campus Rose
by Amanda Emanuel Smith & Kirsten Hertel
Aren't we all human? Even those in the 'ivory tower' of higher education? What makes the PhD student Robyn so unhappy in her job as professor's assistant? Who keeps putting roses in Dr. Bopp's pigeonhole? And what is Prof. Manesser's secret?
Campus Rose takes a humorous and satirical look behind the scenes of the university environment with all its human strengths and frailties. -

An Ideal Husband
by Oscar Wilde
Witty, wicked, and unexpectedly tender, Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband is a sparkling comedy of manners that peels back Victorian respectability to expose human weakness, hypocrisy, and the possibility of redemption. Set in London's fashionable drawing rooms, the play follows Sir Robert Chiltern, a respected politician whose career—and marriage to the elegant Lady Chiltern—are built on a seemingly irreproachable past. When the beautiful and scandalous Mrs. Cheveley appears with evidence of a long-buried secret, Sir Robert faces blackmail that threatens everything he values. As loyalties are tested and clever repartee flies, friends and foes maneuver in a duel of wit, revealing that idealism and honesty are more complicated than appearances suggest.
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Flatspin
by Alan Ayckbourn
A razor-sharp, comic thriller that spins the ordinary into the absurd. Set almost entirely in a London flat, the play follows a young actress whose life takes a dizzying turn when a case of mistaken identity plunges her into a night of bungled impersonations, ill-conceived schemes, and mounting danger. Ayckbourn’s trademark blend of wit and nerve keeps the pace breathless: what begins as a charming romantic setup soon unravels into farce, black comedy, and a surprisingly perceptive look at loneliness, performance, and self-deception.