HITLER ON THE ROOF
a play for two clowns
Denmark premiere
Copenhagen’s Music Theater, March 2011
Re-premiered: February 2012, Mungo Park Allerød, Denmark
Toured Denmark: October – December 2012
Re-premiered: May 2018, The Black Horse Theater
The time is now, the place is Hitler’s Führebunker, the man is Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s loyal Minister of Propaganda and Enlightenment, a man who can’t die until his mission is completed.
Down in the bunker, Goebbels sends his daily dispatch via Art, Culture, and Communication produced by RADIO FREE GOEBBELS. Here, he teaches his loyal listeners the importance of culture and its link to propaganda. “You don’t change a culture with weapons, you change a culture with culture.” In walks Leni Riefenstahl, the film director of the Third Reich, and their dance of death begins.
Rhea Leman wrote HITLER ON THE ROOF in 2010, inspired by the harsh right-wing tone that appeared in the Danish political arena. Unfortunately, the play’s message is more relevant today (2026) than ever before.
Written and directed by: Rhea Leman
Cast: Ina-Miriam Rosenbaum and Kristian Holm Joensen
Set design: Lone Ernest
Lights: Michael Breiner
Sound: Baldur Kampman
Music: Torben Kær
Written and directed by: Rhea Leman
Cast: Ina-Miriam Rosenbaum, Kristian Holm Jorgensen and in 2018 Søren Bang Jensen
Set design: Lone Ernest
Lights: Michael Breiner
Sound: Baldur Kampman
Music: Torben Kær
Photos: Susanne Mertz
“Hitler’s right-hand man, Joseph Goebbels reappears in Rhea Leman’s fantastic play, that brings the audience physically close to the truth of The Third Reich. Hitler On the Roof is maybe the theater season’s most kinky title but Rhea Leman’s play also proves to be one of the season’s most interesting.”
Anne-Middelboe Christensen, Information
****
“What if Joseph Goebbels hadn’t died at the end of W.W.2? What if he was still alive, living in Hitler’s Führerbunker, sending nazi propanganda through his radio program: Radio Free Goebbels! That’s the imaginative premise for Rhea Leman’s political satire with the sassy title “HITLER ON THE ROOF.”
Jakob Steen Olsen, Berlingske Tidende
“It’s crazy and gloomy. It’s history, and it’s reality… And it’s just a really good show.”
Anna Cæcilie Sørensen, Scenekanten
“Brutally provoking.”
Gregers Dirckinck-Holmfeld, Gregers.dk
*****
“Intense, moving and comical … original and fierce entertainment… a combination of tragedy, comedy and honesty.”
Julie Callesen, KULTUNAUT
*****
“The story reminds us that we all stand on the shoulders of what has happened before and that we should consider becoming wiser. Rhea Leman’s performance is from 2011, but the plot has been updated for 2018 on the occasion of the re-premiere. Thank you for that. It is a gem of a performance.”
Pia Stilling, THE CULTURE TIMES
