The Importance of Being Alfred (2006)

Die BUEDG präsentiert eine szenische Lesung des Theater-Debüts von Villa Concordia-Stipendiatin und Erfolgsautorin Louise Welsh in englischer Sprache.

Termin

ist der 31. Oktober 2006 um 20 Uhr.

Veranstaltungsort

das E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Theater Bamberg, Am Schillerplatz

Der Eintritt ist frei Dank der Unterstützung des E.T.A.-Hoffmann-Theaters, der Villa Concordia und der Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg.

Programme Notes

„The Importance of Being Alfred” by Louise Welsh was first performed at Òràn Mór Theatre, Glasgow (17th – 22nd Oct 2005). It was short listed for the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland, Best New Play Category (2006).

By coincidence tonight’s performance is matched by a premier in Scotland at the Arches Theatre Glasgow where the play will run with the original cast and director from the 31st October – 5th of November as part of the Glasgay! festival.

The Dramatis Personae

Lord Alfred Douglas: A tall, thin, raddled, but austerely elegant man of fifty.

Bosie: A handsome undergraduate of twenty-one.

Pemberton Billing: A bluff, athletic man of thirty-eight.

The Play

In 1918 Hugh Pemberton Billing, Independent MP for East Hertfordshire, England, was sued for criminal libel by the dancer Maud Allan. The trial followed accusations in Billing’s proto fascist newspaper „The Vigilante” that Allan was a lesbian German agent who was ‘corrupting’ prominent members of society, with a view to bribing them into undermining the war effort. One of Pemberton Billing’s keenest supporters was Lord Alfred Douglas, best known as the lover of Oscar Wilde, but in later life an ardent homophobe and anti-Semite. The action of the play takes place in the run up to the libel trial.

The Author

Louise Welsh is the author of three novels, „The Cutting Room”, „Tamburlaine Must Die” and „The Bullet Trick”. Her awards include the John Creasey Memorial Dagger, the Saltire First Book Award and the Corine Internationaler Debut Buchpreis. She has been translated into twenty languages and is currently a stipendiat at the Villa Concordia, Bamberg.

The Actors

Shane Walshe is a lecturer at the English Department of the University of Bamberg and is currently working on his doctoral thesis on the depiction of Irish English in Film. He has directed two plays with the Bamberg University English Drama Group (BUEDG) in 2005 and 2006 and has performed in various plays of the BUEDG since 2001.

Kenneth Wynne has been a lecturer at the University of Bamberg for the past 16 years and has been head of the Department of Practical English since 1995. His participation in the BUEDG has involved acting, language coaching and serving as the president of the society.

Stefankai Spoerlein has completed his M.A.-studies in English Linguistics, Literature and Political Sciences at the University of Bamberg. He has performed in various plays of the BUEDG between 1999 and 2005. In 2001 he co-founded the Poetry Slam Bamberg. He has held and has been guest at various (scenic) readings in Bamberg since 1999.