Escaped Alone, Together — The Hamburg Players

FEATS 2026 in The Hague

The Hamburg Players love FEATS, and FEATS seems to love the Hamburg Players back. Most recently, in May 2026, our a production of Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone directed by Rebecca Garron, was awarded the prize for the best production, otherwise known as the John Kearey Award. Below, one of this year’s stage crew, Ivy Stephens, shares her first (!) FEATS experience travelling to festival, held in The Hague. Studying German & Linguistics at Oxford, she spent her year abroad as an assistant teacher in Hamburg – and some of it with the Hamburg Players, managing what only very few of us achieve: she was part of all four HP productions in the past season, the three mainstage shows at Theater an der Marschnerstraße as well as FEATS. Apart from studying the intricacies of the German language, Ivy is also a member of OUDS (Oxford University Dramatic Society), which makes it safe to say, she is a real theatre buff. Read on:

My first FEATS. What a weekend. From exploring the city — in a completely new country for me — to enjoying the fabulous performances of our talented peers, to the excitement and anticipation of show day, to waking up on Tuesday morning to the news that we had won the John Kearey Trophy for best production. I am so glad I asked to tag along as part of the crew.

The first thing I learnt was that FEATS stands for the Festival of European Anglophone Theatrical Societies. Twelve groups from across Europe come together to do what they do best and share their love of English-language theatre with one another. It is a competition, but more importantly it is a celebration: of all things drama, and of the many long-lasting friendships that have developed at the festival over the years — especially this year, on its 50th anniversary.

With only fifty minutes to present what they have worked so hard on, every group ensures that their costumes, sets, lighting, sound effects, and, of course, acting are at their absolute best. They can only hope that they are strong enough to impress the adjudicator — this year, Louise Manders — and by being granted enough points potentially win one of the awards available.

The Hague was small but charming, and somehow relaxing too. Its central point was the Hofvijver lake, a beautiful place to sit and perhaps picnic, which I did more than once. It also happened to be decorated with inflatable art due to the BlowUp Jubilee festival. Excitingly, I discovered that The Hague is home to Vermeer’s famous painting Girl with a Pearl Earring, so my Saturday was spent wandering around the Mauritshuis before heading to the beach — on the air-conditioned tram — for a bit of sea air and some kippers.

All of this, of course, was around spending most of my time at Theater Diligentia, the FEATS host venue for 2026. Compared to our beloved Theater an der Marschnerstraße in Hamburg, I must say that this theatre felt a little luxurious, with stairs leading up to both wings, a lift carrying set pieces from the street directly to the stage, and a huge dressing room! It was a great place to contain all our excitement as we entered into Sunday and started to put our heads down and gloves on for our show day.

The play we brought was Escaped Alone by Caryl Churchill. Our own Carol Kloevekorn had introduced director Rebecca Garron to it some years before, and it was Valerie Doyle, who suggested it for this year’s FEATS entry. Alongside Valerie in the cast were Nora Farrell, Lexi von Hoffmann, and Julie Spanswick. Cecelia Marshall stage-managed the production like a rockstar, while Enrico Fioresi brought the sound to life, and Tom White created both daylight and dramatic effects onstage, despite some rather awkwardly placed lanterns.

Escaped Alone is absurdist and jam-packed with backstories, monologues, and cut-off lines… thank goodness everybody was talented enough to pull it off. And thankfully, the adjudicator turned out to be a Churchill fan too.

Preparation for FEATS was no easy feat (haha). It took months of intense rehearsals, complicated production meetings, a full dress rehearsal with audiences at Hamburg’s Marschnerstraße, and the team of Cecelia, Mathilde, and Enrico packing the van and taking the long journey west. The rest of us travelled by train or plane, thankfully with few complications.

Watching the festival entries on the first and second nights, we spent 75 percent focused on the performances themselves and 25 percent trying to figure out sightlines and listening for where sound might be blocked for the audience. And then came Sunday, the day of our performance.

Stage crew lifted all the set from the van to the lift, while the actors took their tour of the theatre. Standing on the stage for the first time was exhilarating. Then it was a meeting with festival stage manager Emma de Moel, followed by a tour for us stage crew. After a nice brunch up the road and wanders around the Sunday antiques market, we were back at the theatre in the afternoon for our two-hour tech rehearsal.

Other than the complications that meant the lights were only just fully set in the last few seconds of our allotted rehearsal time, everything went smoothly, and our whole stage crew was able to set up and take down the set all together for the first time — including Tom Hafner, who kindly came to help us from Munich. Amazingly, everyone stayed calm, and there seemed to be nothing but excitement in the final moments waiting to head to the stage, even though I’m sure everyone had a few nervous butterflies deep down.

The performance slot itself was such a blur. We got the set up like factory workers who had been doing it forever: first the grass — Mathilde and I, in charge of the grass, called ourselves the “Grass B*tches” 😊 — then the fences, then the weights, then the chairs and set dressings. We were a perfect team, and before we knew it, we were waiting backstage, listening to the audience sing Happy Birthday for the host Henri Colens’ wife.

In my late-night packing, I had fantastically forgotten to pack my own prompt script, so Nora was my saving grace, bringing me hers on her way to the stage. My page was open, the actors were in place, and the one-minute curtain began to rise. Yes, ONE ENTIRE MINUTE — one of the few downsides to this otherwise lovely venue.

The performance went amazingly. The cast started off strong and only went up from there as the show went on. Each monologue went perfectly. These were the moments where an actor might have been most likely to need prompting, but happily for me, I wasn’t needed at all. And before we knew it, the curtain was creeping its way back down again, and we were expertly folding, rolling, and carrying the set pieces off the stage — in three minutes, mind you, which we were very proud of.

Everyone was beaming at the post-performance drinks. Half of us decided to sit in the bar and have a few glasses instead of watching the second performance, going over the whole experience and discussing everything else we had seen over the past few days. We were especially impressed by the English Youth Theatre’s Zero for the Young Dudes.

The third performance went by, and then we sat in anticipation for our adjudication. It was fantastic to hear Louise Manders talk about our own show after having heard her opinions on the other shows over the previous two nights. It was a mostly positive adjudication, which was great. Some of her few small criticisms made us laugh a little — for example, she compared our seagull sound effect to an albatross… there was no seagull sound effect on our list.

We were grateful to have someone give such direct feedback on everyone’s work, and for me personally, I learnt a lot in the way of technicalities as someone who is only just getting started in theatre.

After our private adjudication on Monday, we said our goodbyes and half of us headed home for Hamburg. Only a few stayed behind to attend the awards ceremony. Many of us back in Germany could not sleep that night, and once the news came through that the Hamburg Players had been awarded the John Kearey Trophy for best production, all hope was lost for catching some z’s.

For me, I woke up to the messages early on Tuesday morning. I was beyond thrilled and filled with pride for everybody on the team, including Nora, who was nominated for best actress, and Cece, who was nominated for best stage manager. It was the perfect end to an incredible experience.

So, thank you, everybody. Thank you to the AATG for hosting. Thank you to all the FEATS organisers and volunteers, who were so friendly and supportive the whole way through. Thank you to Louise Manders for your wonderful and thorough adjudication. And most importantly, thank you to the Hamburg Players, especially those who were there with me, for giving me an experience I will never forget.

Congrats - at least to part of the team: Birgit (crew), Valerie (cast), Lexi (cast), Tom (lights), Julie (cast) [standing], Nora (cast), and Mathilde (crew) [front row. All from l to r]

Winning was an unforgettable perk, but the community of theatre-lovers from all across Europe and, most importantly, the family I found in the Hamburg Players along the way were the true heart of these four days in The Hague.

Ivy Stephens