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Lasse Rabenius has been an author of fiction since the turn of the century, writing dramas, sagas and adventure books. He holds a PhD in psychology. The play, The Bomb at Farm Hall, has been a tempting writing project since 1992, when the British listening protocols of the ten German scientists interned at Farm Hall were released. Reading these protocols, it is History itself set on stage.
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Writing the play, the author says, was not a straightforward task. Rabenius had to structure the raw material into a drama that captivates an audience, while being true to historical events. This involved writing an introduction from the last German `Uranmaschine´ experimental facility, and adding reflections on the war years events. The author was helped in this respect by a post-war correspondence between the play's main characters, Heisenberg and Goudsmit, turning that slow letter exchange into a compelling dialogue that explores themes of truth, responsibility and guilt. All this requires a critical investigation and integration of various scholar's interpretations and guesswork of historical reports and utterances.
To gather additional inspiration, Rabenius made visits to the Atom Keller Museum in Haigerloch, where the last German experiments were conducted, and to the Farm Hall estate, to see the house and grounds where the recordings of the ten scientists were made. Rabenius has invested a lot of time and effort in this project, having started it in 2006. He has kept working-notes discussing various perspectives and literature readings related to this real-life drama. Read !
A second play Encounter also centers around the 2nd Word War, now focussing on the post-war Soviet occupied eastern Germany.
Returning to Berlin from a Siberian detention camp a mother tries to adapt. While at the same time her son has been schooled to be a perfect communist apparatchik. Their encounter is a clash between two incompatical perspectives and experiences. Setting the stage for times to come.
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