Name: The Hunchback Variations
Start: 2025-10-06T19:30:00+02:00
Location: Lerchenfeld 14, 22081 Hamburg, 22081 Hamburg, Germany

German-American Friendship Day
An Evening Celebrating Transatlantic Friendship – Theatre, Dialogue, and Community.
On the occasion of German-American Friendship Day and in celebration of the long-standing partnership between Hamburg and Chicago, The English Theatre of Hamburg invites you to a special evening of live performance, cultural exchange, and community.
The evening will feature the acclaimed absurdist play THE HUNCHBACK VARIATIONS by Mickle Maher, introduced by Chicago-born director Rebecca Garron. Following the play, we will explore the Chicago theatre scene and the legacy of absurdism in American theatre.
In the spirit of connection and collaboration, we will also hear brief presentations from a variety of American clubs and institutions here in Hamburg, highlighting the vibrant and diverse transatlantic community in our city.
With a few musical surprises and a relaxed reception to round off the evening, we look forward to celebrating the many ways in which art, friendship, and cultural dialogue continue to bring us together.
Punctuating the final scene of The Cherry Orchard, Anton Chekhov wrote: “Suddenly a distant sound is heard, coming as if out of the sky, like the sound of a string snapping, slowly and sadly dying away.” That one sentence — one of the greatest stage directions in Western theatre — has baffled sound designers for over a century.
In Mickle Maher’s THE HUNCHBACK VARIATIONS, the playwright has developed a deft deconstruction of artistic collaboration through the absurdist conceit of pairing two of history’s most famous deaf artists, Ludwig van Beethoven and Quasimodo, the fictional bell ringer of Notre Dame. Over 11 scenes, or ‘variations,’ the story plays out the duo’s comical and frustrating attempts to create Chekov’s famous sound effect – one doomed by their mutual deafness, unpleasant working conditions, and the fact that Beethoven has not yet finished reading The Cherry Orchard.
THE HUNCHBACK VARIATIONS questions the nature of music and sound, and performance in a moving and fearless meditation on collaboration and the creative process.