All the silent ladies all the silent ladies now put your hands up

Most of the world’s most famous plays include a cast of minor characters whose actors spend a lot of time hanging around in the canteen waiting for their cue. Here, Laura Naumann gives three of them the rare opportunity to present things from their view. Exasperated by his “nightmare children”, Hansel and Gretel’s father contacts a reality TV show in a last-ditch attempt to bring some calm and order into his family life. Gertrud, Hamlet’s mother, tries to persuade Ophelia to give up her stubborn silence and find her own voice among all the men trying to speak for her. Inspired by Brecht’s figure of the voiceless Katrin, another of Naumann’s characters takes the opposite approach by speaking one last time on behalf of all victims of sexual violence before beginning a self-imposed silence and refusing to interact with the world. These “Rip Off Monologues” can be performed either in their own right or in combination.