The escape (drama)
Escape is a play by Ernst Waldbrunn and Lida Winiewicz from 1965. It premiered with Waldbrunn and Albert Lieven in the leading roles on October 8, 1965 in Vienna in the small theater of Josefstadt in the Konzerthaus . Directed by Hermann Kutscher . In addition to Waldbrunn as Karl Anton Winter and Lieven as Dr. Krantz worked with Heribert Aichinger as Svoboda; also played Curt Eilers , Adolf Beinell , Elfriede Rammhapp , Christian Fuchs and Rose Renée Roth .
The piece, which processes Ernst Waldbrunn's own experiences during the Hitler era, received exuberant reviews after its premiere and a triumphant advance across all stages was predicted. However, this did not happen and it was hardly played later.
Content, form
Escape is about the experiences of the so - called half - Jewish comedian Karl Anton Winter, who survived the Holocaust, during the Third Reich . The starting point and cohesion of the sequence of scenes is a lecture evening in Winter's "Humor with Heart" twenty years after the collapse, when he believes he has discovered one of his tormentors among the audience from the stage or discovers a similarity and then flies off the stage. Returning hours later, the actor explains his motives to the night watchman of the Svoboda Theater, an extraordinary admirer of Winter's art, but soon slips into a self-forgotten reflection of the seven worst years of his life:
Winter, who due to his partly Jewish origins after the annexation of Austria was only allowed to act as an actor in Vienna with a special permit, is threatened with unemployment and deportation to a labor camp due to the closure of his theater. A friend put in a good word for him at the director of the Oberschlesisches Theater in Gleiwitz , but there was no answer for a long time. Literally at the last moment, the telegraphic invitation that takes place prevents Winter from going into a notorious coal mine. In Gleiwitz, a drinking friendship with the Gauleiter and literature enthusiast Dr. Krantz (doctoral thesis on Heine ), a "bloodhound" who is feared because of his cruelty. He also heads the Auschwitz concentration camp , where Winter appears with his theater in front of the concentration camp staff. In the end, however, the actor himself cannot avoid a longer stay in a labor camp. When he managed to escape from there, he went to Katowice , where he came to Krantz's study. After initial outrage, the Gauleiter supported the further escape of Winter with a pass, among other things. Meanwhile, Winter feels the desire to kill the Gauleiter, but accepts the Nazi's help. After the end of the Third Reich, Winter, meanwhile a successful actor again in Vienna, heard that Dr. Krantz is wanted as a war criminal. What if Krantz, who had saved his life back then, suddenly stood at his door and begged for help and for his life? After serious deliberation, Winter decides to hand over the "monster" to the impending execution. Then one day Krantz really stands at winter's door. His following actions caused the actor tormented conscience from now on: He hid the wanted man in his apartment for several days until he continued his flight.
Svoboda tears Winter out of his thoughts, which are painfully trying to evaluate what he was doing at the time, and advises an eighth of wine with a dash of rum, the juice of half a lemon, two spoons of sugar and, if available, a few cloves: “Make it hot, draw and get down on a train. ”Winter, however, is concerned with another question: Would his comedy audience, who expect“ humor with a heart ”from him, have listened to him as much as the faithful Svoboda?
Emergence
Ernst Waldbrunn himself commented on the creation of the piece:
“I actually want to write this piece, I thought for a while. Then I wanted to write it, and then I had to write it. It should not deal with a human conflict in the abstract space of political parables and alienated humanity symbols, but rather ask a question of conscience - revenge or omission - in a very concrete and direct manner. After 18 years and - carefully calculated - the twelfth version, I wanted to give up. The piece was too long. The piece was too short. It was too hard. It was too soft. Too black. Too white. It was a bit of an examination of one's conscience. A piece of commitment. But it wasn't a piece. That's when I met Lida Winiewicz. I showed her how my people trembled and threatened, how they clung to life, how they hoped and doubted, how they loved and despised, how they stammered and shouted, what they said and how much they said. She showed me how they talked and how little. This is how 'Die Flucht' came about. "
Contemporary criticism
In Neues Österreich, Rüdiger Engerth spoke of the sensational success of the play, which “for the first time reminded the Viennese of those days when Hitler ordered those actors from the closed stages who did not enjoy the favor of the Reich Chamber of Culture to the labor camps. “ Friedrich Schreyvogl described the sequence of scenes as the most outstanding theater adaptation of the Hitler era“ Europe and the New World ”. In the Wiener Zeitung he wrote: “Since the end of Hitler (have) tried to capture the incomprehensible with the means of the scene, some pieces succeeded, many more fell by the wayside. Well, in Vienna the improbable has become an event - a real and interesting event in the theater. ” After the premiere at the Wiener Kurier, Paul Blaha prophesied :“ This piece of retrospect and memory will go across all stages. ”According to Piero Rismondo's review in The press shows it to a "poor man in his agony and distress of conscience".
effect
Kindler's literary history of the present called Die Flucht 1980, next to Der Herr Karl, “probably (...) the most successful example of dramatic coming to terms with the past on the Austrian scene since 1945.” Unlike the one-person play by Qualtinger / Merz, however, it is now not mentioned in actors' guides.
After the premiere, Die Flucht was also made as a record on Preiser Records . The recording is now also available on CD. In 1966 a television version was filmed with the same leading actors, also under Kutscher's direction. After that there were only a few performances of the piece. One explanation is that, since Die Flucht was written on Waldbrunn and he himself was, so to speak, one with his role, other actors would have shied away from comparison with him. Until the Landsberger Stadttheater put the play on the program in 2008 on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of the Reichspogromnacht in a production by Alexander Netschajew , it had actually not been seen for forty years. However, Die Flucht caused a sensation here again with “sold out performances and standing ovations”. In 2009, on the occasion of an upcoming NPD demonstration in Landsberg as a warning, a brief resumption followed.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Preiser LW 28
- ↑ cf. P. 422
- ↑ http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/Home/Lokales/Landsberg/Lokalnachrichten/Artikel,-Die-Flucht-kom-wieder-_arid,1539480_regid,10_puid,2_pageid,4500.html?et_cid=4&et_lid=5
- ↑ http://www.nicoleoehmig.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=23 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.augsburger-allgemeine.de/Home/Lokales/Landsberg/Lokalnachrichten/Artikel,-Die-Flucht-kom-wieder-_arid,1539480_regid,10_puid,2_pageid,4500.html?et_cid=4&et_lid=5
