The Graduate Centre for Study of Drama is pleased to present the Canadian premiere of Roland Schimmelpfennig’s Boulevard of the Brave (Auf der Greifswalder Strasse), playing at the Studio Theatre from January 30^th to February 3^rd, 2008. Written by one of Europe’s most celebrated contemporary young dramatists and translated into English for the first time, Boulevard of the Brave explores the nature of fate and chance, and the little things that bring us together and—momentarily—interrupt the isolation of the human condition.

In the course of 24 hours, the lives of 37 people who live, work, love and die on a low-income street in Berlin’s North-East end intersect in seemingly banal and accidental ways. A young woman is bitten by a stray dog, a construction worker retrieves a hidden family heirloom from the wall of a building, a silver spoon falls from the sky and lands at the feet of a young man, a store owner falls in love with a tall girl he has never seen before. Through his signature dramaturgy of laconic, hyper-realistic snap shots, magic realism, fairy tale and prose narrative, Roland Schimmelpfennig leads the spectator’s gaze abruptly back and forth between the two sides of one loud and ugly street—unexpectedly spanning generations bound together by this neighbourhood of the forgotten.

Roland Schimmelpfennig is Germany’s most prolific contemporary playwright. At the age of only 40 years old, he has written 18 plays that have been translated into over 20 languages, yet he remains relatively unknown in North America. Written in 2006, Auf der Greifswalder Strasse is part of a current stream of German playwriting that takes a fragmented and deconstructed look at the stories of everyday life. The Drama Centre’s upcoming production of this important play promises to attract Canadian audiences to Schimmelpfennig’s unique voice that invites us to look differently at the world around us.

Imagistic, thought provoking and emotionally compelling, Boulevard of the Brave defies the limits of form and genre to present a powerful meditation on life and the possibilities that open up when we allow ourselves to recognize the marvelous behind the mundane. Boulevard of the Brave is translated and directed by Birgit Schreyer Duarte with dramaturgy by Natalie Corbett, set and costume designs by Becky Bridger and Elizabeth Cameron, lighting design by Aaron Bieman and Michelle MacArthur and sound design by Steph Berntson. The ensemble cast features Christine Armstrong, Keith Bennie, Julia Hune Brown, Jordana Commisso, Adam Crisman, Jennifer Heywood-Jackson, Tory Mountain, Charlotte Powell, Tyler Seguin, Guillermo Verdecchia, and Lydia Wilkinson.