The year Lazertis

The year Lazertis
Radio play from Germany
Year of production	1954
genre	Fairy tale / fantasy
Duration	96 min
production	NWDR
Contributors
author	Günter Eich
Director	Fritz Schröder-Jahn
music	Siegfried Franz
speaker
Paul: Hans Paetsch Laparte: Wilfried Seyferth Manuela: Anneliese Römer Dr. Bayard: Joseph Offenbach Seemanns: Günther Dockerill Kingsley: Josef Dahmen Richards: Wolfgang Wahl Dr. Olivera: Berndt Werner The other Manuela: Trudik Daniel

The year Lazertis is a radio play by Günter Eich . Eich wrote the piece in 1953. The first broadcast took place on January 25, 1954 in the program of the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR). Directed by Fritz Schröder-Jahn .

In the same year, Südwestfunk (SWF) broadcast a parallel production by Karl Peter Biltz . In 1958 Eich wrote a second version of the piece.

content

Paul, the main character of this radio play, embarks on the path of chance in search of a word that, as he describes, solves all secrets. He heard this word on a New Year's Eve, uttered by someone who, absorbed in a conversation, passed the open window of his room. For as long as the word was pronounced, the world was "transformed and understood, but in the same breath it was forgotten again". He searches for the word in his memory, but can only remember one similar, meaningless word: Lazertis.

While searching for the right word, Paul met the researcher Laparte, whom he was invited on a trip to Brazil with. During this trip he meets people who try to help him with their associations with "Lazertis". After Paul got the leprosy himself while caring for a leper , he went to a French-speaking doctor who, before admitting him to a leprosy ward, suggested the French certainty “la certitude” as the word he was looking for.

In the station, Paul meets people whom nobody from the outside cares about. He is needed by them and after years he realizes that he cannot live without them. The radio play ends with this statement.

Collage from 1971

• The year Lazertis - subtitle homage á Günter Eich
• Production: Südwestfunk
• Music: Ennio Morricone
• Direction and adaptation: Peter Michel Ladiges ,
• People and their actors:
  • Paul: Gert Westphal
  • Laparte: OE Hasse
  • Bayard: Paul Hoffmann
  • Kingsley: Wolfgang Schwarz
  • Zeemans: Heinz Schimmelpfennig
  • Richards: Hans-Christian Blech
  • Oliveira: Arthur Mentz
  • Manuela: Irmgard Först
  • the other Manuela: Therese Giehse

literature

• Günter Eich: The surf from Setbal. The year Lazertis. Two radio plays . Frankfurt / Main: Suhrkamp, ​​1963.
• Hans-Ulrich Wagner: Günter Eich and the radio. Essay and documentation . Potsdam: Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, 1999. ISBN 3-932981-46-4