Last updated 5. March 2025 | Theater

“My name is Alice, and I’m going to burn them all.” When these words were spoken on 17.06.2018, the members of the theater department of the general student committee at Leuphana University Lüneburg felt a great sense of relief, but also melancholy. After 9 months of work, the current production of the play “Alice im Anderland”, written by Stefan Altherr, ended to great applause from the audience.

“Alice in Another Land” is set several years after the experiences described by Lewis Carroll. After Alice sets fire to her house, killing her parents and her cat, she is admitted to a mental hospital. There she meets many of her old companions and decides to join forces with them against the Queen of Hearts, a night nurse who tortures the inmates together with her henchman. But she soon realizes that she seems to be running into walls with her plan. In a last desperate act, she takes up fire again.

The production lasted two semesters, in which everyone involved put a lot of heart and soul and, above all, a lot of time. However, the decision to stretch it out over two semesters instead of the usual one semester turned out to be a very good one: among other things, it enabled a long phase of role-finding, which meant that everyone was able to bring a role that suited them to the stage and fill it, for which we also received confirmation from the audience at the end.

But at that time, no one could have guessed just how complex the work on this play would become. The rehearsals quickly became longer and longer, and more and more time was spent on stage design, props and costumes in addition to the weekly meetings. But of course all this also strengthened the cohesion of our group. Not least at the joint rehearsal weekend in Hanover, it became clear that we were not yet jumping down each other’s throats, but could still laugh a lot together.

And so came the weeks of performances, before which we rehearsed almost daily and had to work twelve-hour shifts to set up and dismantle the stage in the Rote Feld. But once we were on stage, all these efforts were virtually forgotten. No matter how chaotic it was at times, what mattered now was bringing to the stage what we had been working towards for the whole two semesters and captivating the audience.

Apparently this worked, as we didn’t really expect to receive so much positive feedback after every single performance. And so we now have a production behind us that was exhausting, but even more so, and above all a lot of fun, in which we grew and made a lot of new friends. We still find it a little hard to realize that this is now over, even if the number of lines from the play that we throw at each other in conversation is slowly decreasing.

So all that remains is to thank everyone who watched one or even several of our performances, who supported us in any way with the organization and to thank our flatmates and friends who were understanding when we came home late on Wednesday evenings or had to cancel appointments because another spontaneous rehearsal was scheduled.

And if you are now perhaps interested in becoming part of this great team yourself, keep an eye out on the official AStA channels and on our Facebook page at the start of the winter semester. There you will find out when we will meet for the first time in the new semester. We look forward to seeing you!

See you next year!
Your theater department.