Sister act: family comedy performance enhances German learning

Language was brought to life for Year 9 boys when a specialist theatre company performed a play entirely in German at the School.

The play, Meine neue Schwester [My new sister], is set in Hamburg in Germany and tells the story of two girls, Katarina and Sonja, whose parents are about to marry each other. It follows the ups and downs of their relationship and how they adjust to life together. The play is a comedy; the two girls meet for the first time and do not get on, until they find a common interest – boys!

The play lasted 50 minutes. The School received a vocabulary list and a brief extract of the play beforehand to facilitate pupils' understanding of the performance.

“Our boys thoroughly enjoyed the experience,” said Head of Languages Christopher Kidd. “They were able to join the cast on stage and interact with the actors. The boys’ responses in German to the questioning were most impressive and they handled themselves very well.”

The visiting theatre company, Onatti Ltd, specialise in performing plays to schools in the UK in French, German and Spanish, as well as English plays to schools in France. It is their second visit to QE; they performed a play in French to Year 8 in December.