One country had a physical wall while the other kept people apart with apartheid – and both came tumbling down, to international acclaim.
These two countries: Germany and SA, are in the spotlight in the collaborative play Changes: Fall of Berlin Wall and Apartheid at the PE Opera House this week.
Changes is a production in partnership between the Opera House and Landesbuhne Niedersachsen Nord GmbH, set pre-1994 and showing how those turbulent years of change affected the lives of ordinary citizens in the two lands.
Directed by German drama pedagogue and director Frank Fuhrmann, it stars German actors Jeffery von Laun and Paul Lücke, and SA actors Xabiso Zweni and Nobesuthu Rayi.
“Both countries changed a lot from 1989 to 1994.
“The Berlin Wall fell and the two parts of Germany came together,” Fuhrmann said.
Meanwhile in SA Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and the country held its first democratic elections in 1994.
“We looked at these times and invented a story of one refugee from SA [played by Rayi], who goes to study in Germany.
“We put her together with a character who fled from the German Democratic Republic, and they become a couple.
“Our last scenes are in SA – and how are their lives [in this country]?
“We put a lot of historical facts in but we wanted to tell a story.”
A regular visitor to Nelson Mandela Bay, Fuhrmann has previously held workshops as part of a professional relationship between the University of Oldenburg in Germany and the then UPE.
“I started to connect with Xabiso and then the Opera House about three years ago,” he said, and this led to the development of the play.
It was thanks to a partnership between the Eastern Cape and the ministry of science and arts from Lower Saxony that the group were able to travel with Changes.
The same cast performed in Germany after the play premiered at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in 2016.
This Drama Seasons at the Opera House is, however, its first run in Nelson Mandela Bay. “We had a good reaction from the young people in Germany in June – they don’t know this history because it is more than 20 years ago,” Fuhrmann said.
There is a 20-minute talk after the 65-minute play “where we engage with the audience” he said, urging theatregoers to take the opportunity to ask questions.
Changes is at 7pm each night until Saturday, with an additional performance at 2pm on Saturday.
Tickets are R100 (R150 double, students and pensioners R50).
● Further information from Cingiwe Skosana, e-mail: or Nomgcobo Mkize, nomgcobo mkize@gmail.com, or call 041586-2256.