Music/theatre production by Imitating the Dog Theatre Co. Taking as its starting point the final moments of the Second World War in Berlin, The Zero Hour follows the stories of three couples living through three very different versions of the same historical events. In one version two Russian soldiers celebrate their survival amid the ruins of Berlin as, at the same time they prepare to say goodbye. In another, a British intelligence officer visits a Germany, allied with Britain, which has almost won the war against the Soviet Union, and where the Red army may have discovered a way to send messages through time. In a third a triumphant Soviet Union has occupied all of Europe except for Great Britain with whom an uneasy truce is maintained. Across these different histories the protagonists’ lives connect or fail to connect in ways which echo and resonate and gradually build a picture of human stoicism in the face of the wave of history. The Zero Hour asks difficult questions about how we understand ourselves in relation to the times and the universe in which we find ourselves. It is work which is overtly philosophical and we hope humane. It is also unapologetically romantic and shot through with the obsessions (sex, babies, death WW2 and time travel) which are the hall marks of ITD’s narrative inventions.

further performances:
14 November 2012 
Peninsula Arts, Plymouth,
15 November 2012
 Wickham Theatre, Bristol
14/15 December 2012 Platform Theatre, University of the Arts, London
30/31January 2013
 Live at LICA, Lancaster
8/9 February 2013
 Warwick Arts Centre, Warwick
14-16 February 2013
 West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/7910