Lotte's Gift

When classical guitarist Karin Schaupp and playwright David Williamson joined forces to create a play that blended drama and musical performance, they struggled to find a suitable subject matter. Ironically they needed to look no further than Schaupp’s German grandmother Lotte, whose remarkable life story became the focal point of the project. The result is a compelling one-woman play about Lotte’s prodigious talent for singing and her tragically frustrated musical career that sees Schaupp, as Lotte, vividly recounting memories of wartime hardship, domestic strife and aborted love to her grand-daughter Karin.

Though the interaction between Lotte and Karin is staged as a dialogue, with Karin’s ardent questions driving the narrative, Schaupp’s energetic characterisation ensures this device is never strained. Slipping effortlessly between characters, Schaupp is particularly impressive as the resilient Lotte, whose joie de vivre illuminates even the darkest phases of her life.

An all-consuming passion for music links grandmother with grand-daughter and Lotte’s story is punctuated by exquisite guitar solos that express the mood of the chapter as Karin performs for her grandmother. These carefully chosen pieces are woven seamlessly into the narrative, and heighten – rather than distract from – the lucid recollections.

Projected photographs and home videos accompany these musical interludes, capturing people or scenes that remain imprinted in Lotte’s memory: images of Grunberg city reduced to rubble poignantly illustrate Lotte’s harrowing account of the bombing that devastated her community. The mixed media combine flawlessly with the primary narrative to create a wonderfully rich portrait of a woman who lived for music.