The Hero of the Western World (1978)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The hero of the western world |
| Country of production | GDR |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1978 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Margot Thyret |
| production | Television of the GDR |
| music | Hanns Eisler |
| camera | Josef Kubitza |
| occupation | |
| |
The Hero of the Western World is the studio recording of the television of the GDR of Piet Drescher's production of the play of the same name by John Millington Synge in the translation by Anna Elisabeth Wiede and Peter Hacks at the Städtisches Theater Karl-Marx-Stadt .
action
The play takes place at the beginning of the 19th century in James Flaherty's inn on the coast of Mayo , a county in Connacht in northwestern Ireland. The landlord is about to go to a funeral with some friends. His daughter Margaret is to stay alone in the inn, because her future husband Shawn Keogh does not want to stay overnight with her until the pastor has married her. Then Christopher Mahon arrives, a young man who claims to have killed his father. In desperation, Christopher had hit his tyrannical father with a spade in a quarrel in a potato field and fled in panic when old Mahon lay lifeless. He wandered around for nights. His story, which he reluctantly tells in the Flaherty's tavern, excites the imagination of those present. Such a “brave” man had never come around. Margaret especially takes a liking to him, and after her father hires him as a tap boy, she quickly sends her future husband home.
The news spreads quickly in the village and the next morning the beautiful girls of the village come to provide the courageous man with delicious food. The widow Quin also appears, who would like to have a strong man with her again. Everyone admires Christopher Mahon, except for Shawn Keogh, who dresses him completely new just to make him disappear. In the meantime, however, the supposedly dead father appears in the dining room, seriously injured in the head, to look for his son, who is currently at a riding competition in the village. The widow Keogh suspects bad things and manages to send him away again. While Christopher is celebrating his victory in the competition in the taproom, his father appears again. All the glamor of a courageous murderer goes out and the son is called a fraud. Now the son picks up the spade again and kills his father a second time. But if such an act happens in the immediate vicinity, it will not resonate with those present. Everyone is now turning away from the young Mahon and wants to see him hanging. But surprisingly, old Mahon survived the attack one more time and quickly leaves the area with his son.
production
The recording had its television premiere on April 1, 1978 in the 2nd program of the television of the GDR . The performance was recorded in the time between the fire of the old Karl-Marx-Städter playhouse (1976) and the opening of the new playhouse (1980).
Individual evidence
- ↑ The hero of the western world. In: Television of the GDR - Online Lexicon of GDR television films, television games and TV productions. Retrieved July 24, 2014 .