Highly creative in its theatrical presentation, Clare Fraenkel’s deeply private I Was A German is just attractive at VAULT Festival
“I wouldn’t exist if my grandad hadn’t escaped”
Part TED Talk, half private odyssey, Clare Fraenkel’s delightfully theatrical I Was A German manages a formidable double whammy in hitting onerous in its exploration of what ‘home’ is in each the previous and the current. That’s partly due to the appalling state of a world in the present day that refuses to study the teachings of the 20th century however additionally it is the results of some intelligent conceptualisation, searchingly clever route from Lowri James and a extremely interesting central efficiency from Fraenkel.
In Thirties Berlin and stripped of his citizenship, Fraenkel’s grandfather Heinz escapes the encroaching Nazi forces and has to handle life within the UK as a German Jewish exile. In modern Britain, Fraenkel offers with Brexit by deciding to use for a similar German citizenship that was taken from Heinz. But as she explores the mythic historical past of a grandparent she sadly barely bought to know in particular person (he conveniently wrote a e-book!), she uncovers a unprecedented story with lingering impression on her personal.
I Was A German is way from dry historic biopic although. Blending creative projections, shadow puppetry, a bit gentle viewers participation and unique music from Arran Glass, Fraenkel and her trusty suitcase presents up one thing really creative. Playing on the cabaret of the period, witty songs draw us in however we’re by no means spared brutal honesty – the fact of getting to drop each single factor you personal so as to escape, the problem of getting your individual nation rob you of your statehood. It is unconscionable to suppose that each factors can apply to 2023 as a lot as 1933.
Fraenkel’s present additionally digs deep to the center of Brexit delusion, not with heavy-handed hammer blows however with the sharp stiletto thrust of private testimony. A quiet however insistent cri de cœur that asks if the famend tolerance of British society to which the likes of her grandfather fled is nothing however a mirage now. There’s tenderness too as she wrestles with how he may need dealt along with her decisions to get a German passport, resulting in a phenomenal reckoning with that legacy. A stunning present.