Ein Augenblick vor dem Sterben

I just got back from seeing a really cool play at the University. Tiffany's friend Anja is a theater major and she invited us to their current production - Ein Augenblick vor dem Sterben (A Moment Before the Death).

They created a very intimate stage in the middle of a circle, with the audience sitting around the stage. Tiffany and I became props at times...a heroine addict hid her drugs under Tiffany's seat! The scenes were all really short and had all new characters. At the end of each scene, someone died. Then half way through, one of the women that died went back and changed her actions. So she ended up surviving. Her survival changed everything else and all of the deaths that had previously happened. It was at this point that I realized that all of the people were connected. For example, because the motorcyclist survived his accident, he and his mother were in the hospital room and were able to call for the nurse when the man in the neighboring hospital bed experienced a collapsed lung. It was really fun to watch how everything connected and came full circle just because of the small change.

I haven't seen such a well done (without all the bells and whistles of a broadway musical) play before. I was able to understand all of the German, but it was partly because the actors did a good job. We brought Ingrid's friend with us, who speaks absolutely no German...thankfully the actors were good enough to make it so understandable.

Overall, what started out to be a rather morbid play, ended up suprising me and being really intriguing/interesting/thought-provoking.