Learning German (Badly) by Tim Luscombe

Learning German (Badly) by Tim Luscombe

An ode to a potential union, a lament for lost citizenship and a celebration of life, British theatre director Tim Luscombe's comic diary charms as it enlightens. Apparently secure in the cosmopolitan bubble of Berlin, Tim seeks to win citizenship by returning to school to learn German. However, his twenty international classmates are not as focussed on study as he would wish. Karole from Botswana, Mervyn from Estonia and Jang-Mi from Korea become his new unlikely friends as together they grapple with mind-bending grammar, the art of integration and baffling immigration paperwork. As their flawed but valiant teacher attempts to coral her ship of fools towards an understanding of the dative, some prosper while others move on.
As well as reflecting the anarchy of the class, Learning German (badly) records Tim's despair watching from afar the build-up to the referendum to leave the European Union - Brexit. And then its aftermath when the UK votes to leave the EU. His sense of himself as a European is threatened when a new England is born, heralded by Teresa May's conference speech damning 'citizens of nowhere'. As an old England dies and Tim mourns and feels a sense of loss and confusion, his father also faces his own death in Teddington Hospital, forcing priorities to shift and the comedy to darken. As a European political union is torn apart, a new personal union deepens when Tim's peregrinations end and he falls in love with his newly adoptive country and marries his German boyfriend.
This comedy of manners is as much about the dynamics of a classroom as it is about a union of countries - as much about feelings of isolation among unfamiliar people-places-and-things as it is about how those feelings ultimately transform into renewal. Its central interests are transience, identity, community - and how not to learn German.

Luscombe, Tim: - Tim Luscombe is a writer, director and European. Born in London, he has worked and homed in many European countries and has now settled in Berlin, where he lives with his partner. His plays and more recently a book celebrate Europe as they attempt to define European identity. Other writing includes plays with gay and queer themes and several adaptations of nineteenth century English novels. Before concentrating on writing, Tim worked as a director in the theatre. As well as being responsible for plenty of plays in the West End and on Broadway, he ran the London Gay Theatre Company in the 1990s. For more information on Tim's work, please visit http: //www.timluscombe.com/

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781910461440
ISBN 10	191046144X
Title	Learning German (Badly)
Author	Tim Luscombe
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Claret Press
Year published	2019-10-18
Number of pages	220
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.