The English language World Premiere of the award-winning play Farewell Mister Haffmann visits Bath’s Ustinov Studio this August and September.

In France, Jean-Philippe Daguerre’s four-time Molière Award-winning drama enjoyed huge success and was also made into a film, Adieu Monsieur Haffmann. As director Lindsay Posner and UK cast members – Lisa Dillon, Josefina Gabrielle, Alexander Hanson, Nigel Lindsay and Ciarán Owens – prepare for the first English language production in Bath, Jean-Philippe highlights the relevance of this intriguing wartime drama in today’s world and the importance of theatre and live performance.

This is the English language World Premiere of Farewell Mister Haffmann. How does it feel to have your work translated for an English audience?

It is such an honour and a privilege to have my play performed in English. The English audience has great love and respect for the art of theatre, and I really hope they appreciate the play.

The play has been a commercial and critical success in France winning four Molière Awards. It has also been one of the longest running plays in France. What is it in this story that draws the audience in?

I believe the reason it’s been so successful is because it tells a human story. The complex relationship of a man in danger and a couple who is hiding him but are also desperately longing for a child. The complexity and tenderness of this three-way relationship is intriguing. The backdrop of the big story of the Nazi occupation and this incomprehensible world they find themselves in – adds to the surreal situation. I tried to mix emotion, humour and laughter, which I believe makes it universal and timeless.

Have you got any personal connections to the story or to that period of time, that have inspired you?

My great-grandparents hid Polish Jews in their cellar in Montauban during the war. They had not told me anything about this directly, but I discovered it gradually because they kept receiving gifts from the USA from the Polish family that they had saved, who had later gone to live in America. This piece is a way of summoning their memory – both my great-grandparents and the bravery they displayed, and the memory of those individuals they hid and subsequently saved during the war. 

Some of the characters in the play are historical characters like Otto and Suzanne. Are the others based on stories or characters you know?

It is essentially a work of fiction, but I was close to a couple who were so incredibly desperate to have a child and it made me wonder how far one would be willing to go in order to fulfil this longing. I wanted to explore what lengths one would go to, what risks one would take to achieve what they want. As a writer, we often draw from our own experiences and base characters off of people we know or have met, combining authenticity, relatability, and realism in fictional characters. 

What message would you want the audience to take away from the play?

There are many themes and messages I would want audiences to take away from this play – but the overarching one I hope people leave with is believing that “courage is stronger than fear”. It is not only the essential sentence of my play but also one of the strongest morals I try to embed in my personal life. Those who live life through fear will never be able to truly experience all the wonder that life has to offer. Having courage is the most noble quality one can possess in my opinion.

What was the reaction of the Jewish audience in France to the play?

Many Jewish audiences have come along to see the play – even the Chief Rabbi of France has watched it! It has become almost a mandatory piece for Jewish communities in France, and the word-of-mouth around the piece has really brought in a consistent audience, selling out numerous productions. It has been performed in French in Israel, and then it was also adapted, produced and performed in Hebrew which opened it up to an even wider audience to also enjoy the play. The show has had a strong impact across the Jewish community, and whilst its themes are also wholly universal and will connect with a wide range of audiences, it is key that the Jewish history in the piece remains authentic. I know that the English producers were very keen to have Jewish representation amongst the members of both the creative team and cast for this production in Bath.

The play has been performed in many cities in France – has the audience reaction been different in each place?

Audiences who come to the theatre in France do tend to have an open mind and have had a very positive response to the play. Even in cities where the Rassemblement National (extreme right party) controls the local municipality, in Vichy for example, the audience gave us a standing ovation. My sincere hope is that in families where perhaps the parents might hold antisemitic and racist views and vote for extreme right parties, the children will think differently from them, and prejudice will eventually be phased out. The production is really made for these people, the next generation. The play was also published as a school program, and is studied in class, so we have also extended it to a teenage audience, and I hope that it is both educational and insightful for the younger audiences who are the future of tomorrow! The reaction really has been tremendous throughout France. It has received several standing ovations in Tel Aviv and Lebanon too. A true symbol of the prominence and power of this piece! 

What in your opinion is the relevance of the story to today’s world?

The play echoes our world today in 2023, with the growing problem of intolerance, fear of others, racism, and the ever-present and growing problem of antisemitism. The echoes of the past are reverberating through our reality today, and, unfortunately, that is why this play is so relevant and its themes must be shared again and again. I believe that it’s works like this one that can help change mentalities and attitudes and open people’s eyes to the realities of our world today. 

In certain productions of the play – you have performed as Otto. Can you tell us why you chose to do that, and did it change your view of the character?

Initially, I found myself playing the role to replace an actor who couldn’t perform. In playing Otto, I tried to bring to the fore the fact that he was firstly a human being. Behind the monster that he’s become – there was first a man. He was a man of culture, he was in love with France – but he made choices under the yoke of Hitler, he chose his darkest human side, something that many people do under certain circumstances, and chose to be on the wrong side of history. I wanted to show that good people can become monsters and that people are also not always one dimensional. They have many layers. I really loved playing him, but I also very much enjoy seeing other actors embody the role. 

What is your view of the future of the theatre industry in France?

To be honest, I’m a little worried, but I’m an optimist. Since the pandemic, people have become more accustomed to living without live performing arts – living through their screens with entertainment on demand and so much choice of content. We absolutely must bring audiences back to the theatre, as nothing beats live theatre and the beauty of live performances. There is great strength and immense energy in being in a theatre with other people – all absorbed in a story and reacting together, sharing thoughts and opinions after the show and experiencing something together, as an audience, as community. I’ll keep writing and producing theatre shows because I am keen to bring people out of their homes and into the theatre. Contrary to what we may have thought during the pandemic, theatre is ESSENTIAL, and we are here to stay.

The English language World Premiere of Farewell Mister Haffmann appears at the Ustinov Studio at the Theatre Royal Bath from Thursday 24^th August to Saturday 23^rd September.