The title references the joyful Yiddish saying common to Jews in appreciation of their new status as equal citizens in post-Revolutionary France. In May 1940, Jews seeking refuge in France were arrested. Many were deported to internment camps in the south-west. This drama focuses on the largest of these camps, Gurs. The action focuses on three who were incarcerated as ‘Undesirables’. Thirty-four-year-old, political writer, Hannah Arendt, sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Eva Daube and twenty-four-year-old painter, Charlotte Salomon. The play is set during the chaotic days between armistice and occupation. Characters must decide whether to stay, and hope for liberation, or escape in to a dangerous unknown countryside
New play in development.
As Happy As God In France is backed by a grant from Cockayne Grants for the Arts.