The Misfortune of the English Tickets
Inspired by true events: a story of (mis)adventure and blind optimism, nationhood, and courage in the face of disaster
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It’s been a cracking season at the Orange Tree so far this Spring, and things just might have got better still with this new play by Pamela Carter. It’s inspired by the true story of a group of English schoolboys who in April 1936 ignored local advice and got caught in a blizzard in then Nazi Germany’s Black Forest with tragic consequences. What was it that stopped them from taking advice or turning back? The play premiered in Germany last year to fine reviews and speculation about British ideas of heroism fed by stories of WW1 and Empire. Oscar Toeman, who directed an excellent revival of The Sugar Syndrome at this address, is at the helm.
About The Misfortune of the English
Guten Tag meine Herren und Frauen von Freiburg, von Deutschland. We have travelled here from London, England. You may have heard of it. On the morning of 17 April 1936, a group of 27 schoolboys, led by their teacher and newly arrived in Nazi Germany, set out on the first of a seven-day walking tour of the Black Forest. By 8pm that evening, local villagers were searching for them in a blizzard. You did say you wanted to take the scenic route. Pamela Carter’s work includes The End Of Eddy (Unicorn Theatre), LINES (Yard Theatre), and Paul Bright’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner (National Theatre of Scotland). Following his critically acclaimed, award-winning production of The Sugar Syndrome, Oscar Toeman (Actually, Trafalgar Studios; After October, Finborough) returns to the Orange Tree to direct.