Emergency Workshop! Performed by Marie Hahne, with Gordon Evans as musician at Theatre Arts, Observatory, Cape Town – October 9-12, 2025. Loved! Go! Go! Go! It may save your life. Book online or at door https://theatrearts.co.za/show/emergency_workshop

Emergency Workshop is described as “interactive lecture performance/workshop” but Marie Hahne (German born, lives in Wellington) has constructed a vigorous, quirky, introspective and yet entertaining piece of theatre which pivots between safety drills and exercises and a narration based on W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Comet. Basically in The Comet (short story published 1920 – so yeah – over a hundred years ago) – just about everyone dies after a comet emits toxic gasses. Race, privilege, fear, dystopian hell – this science fiction story – pings out loudly in this broken world. You come out of the dark room, developing photos of the comet, as our heroine (Marie Hahne) does and just about everyone is dead. “What has happened? Everything is silence. Dark… The world is in hysterical tears … Who was saved…” In the rubble, in the dark, death is a leveller and so is fear. Difference becomes muted in the panic and despair. When the world is gone and then what?

It may sound morbid but this piece is fabulously practical in offering exercises and drills on how to survive. As I noted, it may save your life. The audience participates and goes through the drills and prompts – which are interspersed with the Comet story. The thrust of the piece is that we must all do our best to save ourselves. Stay calm. What do you do if you are faced in the water, with a crocodile wanting to devour you? What do you do if you are buried in a wooden coffin? How should we respond to fire, water, air, earthquake? I don’t want to narrative spoil but I really feel that I gained some great pointers tonight. A spectacular example is earthquake drill, which Hahne learned while living in Japan. I am not going to tell you – go and participate in this Emergency Workshop.


It is immersive and thrilling theatre. It is immersive beyond sitting in a circle in the theatre space. The audience becomes very much part of the performance – using props and stuff in the magic circle. We also did some yoga, breathing exercises and learned a nifty manoeuvre for aging backs. There is a clock ticking, with a countdown. The performance is exactly one hour and 30 minutes. Time is fleeting and we must hurry and save ourselves. And laugh and love.

Gordon Evans makes music, serenading us, wrapping us in sonic good vibes, calming us. The charming and engaging Marie Hahne is a delight as the Emergency Workshop leader and marshal. In case of fire or whatever, I vote her as the emergency officer. Her physical movement is cleverly woven in as she narrates The Comet and leads the safety drills and exercises.


The magic circle of the installation set is strewn with emergency paraphernalia and also has elements of play. Yes, let us play through our fears. Let us tell our stories and listen to stories of others – as cautionary tales – as beacons of hope. I had lots of fun tonight and was captivated by the performance and immersion in the unfolding story. I hope that Marie Hahne, with Gordon Evans do other editions of Emergency Workshop in other spaces. It would be great to offer this piece for school learners.  She told me that she did a huge version in a castle in Bavaria. More – please. As As it says on the poster – “the end is near – let’s rehearse for it.” Yes! Let’s do that. Go to the safe space of the theatre and do that. It says on the poster – “the end is near – let’s rehearse for it.” Yes! Let’s do that. Go to the safe space of the theatre and do that. 

✳ Emergency Workshop, Theatre Arts, Cape Town, October 9-12, 2025. Pic: Robyn Cohen/The Cape Robyn Oct 9, 2025