See school leaks drama

Sascha Ley stars with Andrea Hall in Larisa Faber’s Papercut Guy Wolff/Maison Moderne

Actor and writer Larisa Faber’s latest work was inspired by the school leaks scandal that rocked Luxembourg in 2015.

Papercut tells the story of a secondary school teacher who becomes an involuntary whistle-blower by denouncing failings within Luxembourg’s school system. It is a play “about the consequences of speaking up when shutting up would have been a much more comfortable choice.”

Larisa Faber directs Luxembourg actor and singer Sascha Ley and London-based actor Andrea Hall, alongside “special guests”. The stage design is by Marie-Luce Theis,  sound design by Luka Tonnar and video content by Maida Halilovic.

Faber says she was drawn to the story because she attended the Lycée Classique d’Echternach, where the leak happened and knew one of the concerned teachers, Danielle Hoffelt, who ran the school’s drama club. “The way her actions were relayed in the press and on social media clashed with the person I knew,” Faber says. “I’ve always been drawn to people who are willing to act on their values and what that might mean in terms of real-life repercussions.” 

She began by conducting lots of research and interviewing Danielle Hoffelt. Even then, it took almost a year to get through writer’s block before her brain clicked into gear, as she puts it.

“Writing something inspired by a real person’s experience had turned out to be quite daunting, I think. I needed to give myself the freedom to move away from a documentary-style approach and now we’ve got whacky musicals numbers and sketches and quirky videos in the play.”

Tickets for the show, which takes place under Covid 2G+ event can be