Making theatre in exile

Delving into a suitcase full of sketches, songs and letters, a group of modern-day actors bring to life the story of the Laterndl theatre in Hampstead, established by a group of exile actors and writers from Nazi-occupied Austria during the Second World War. Rekindling the Viennese tradition of political cabaret, they reflect on their new surroundings and hopes for the future, and bring a beacon of light to the 30,000-strong traumatised refugee community. The Laterndl received wide critical acclaim and soon came to symbolise the community’s resistance to Nazi terror and assertion of an independent Austrian identity and culture.

Making Theatre in Exile re-discovers the Laterndl through the work of the Research Centre for German & Austrian Exile Studies on the Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller Archive, deposited in 2001 at the Institute of Modern Languages Research (University of London).