The Queen of Honolulu

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Queen of Honolulu ( Low German : De Keunigin von Honolulu) is a Low German folk piece by Gorch Fock from 1913. It is a comedic singspiel .

The premiere took place in 1916 at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg . After 1950 the play was on the repertoire of the Ohnsorg Theater for several years .

Origin and structure

The Queen of Honolulu was commissioned by Fock in November 1913. Only fragments of the original work, consisting of four acts, have survived. The new version of the stage play by Günther Siegmund, which has been performed since the 1960s, consists of three acts.

action

Around 1910 six sailors pass the time in the harbor bar "The Queen of Honolulu" in the Hamburg district of St. Pauli. The landlord Krischon, known as Krischon Honolulu, used to go to sea himself and is now working as a haymaker . The six sailors urge their hireboy to get them a new wage soon, but no sailors are wanted at the moment. The six sailors chat with Klönschnack, music or Krischon, the Ewerführer Jonni and the now adult orphan Lieschen ensure a good mood.

An American luxury yacht is finally arriving in port. The yacht has the same name as the pub, namely "The Queen of Honolulu", ie "The Queen of Honolulu". The owner, the somewhat quirky millionaire William Thompson, is actually looking for sailors for a trip around the world, which will also lead to Honolulu . There is no question that the six sailors are trying to get their wages. When the landlord learns that the trip should also take him to his beloved Honolulu, he hands the bar over to his friend, the Ewerführer Jonni Wiedenbüx, and lets himself be hired. Lieschen puts on men's clothes and wants to go on a long journey too. It just doesn't fit that the millionaire can't stand women - but that could change.

Performances

The first performance of the play took place on September 18, 1916 in the Thalia Theater (Hamburg) by the Society for Dramatic Art under the direction of Richard Ohnsorg . It was part of a memorial service for the author Gorch Fock, who fell in the same year. The performance met with an extremely positive response from the audience and the press, resulted in 25 repetitions within a short time and is considered to be the birth of the Low German stage.

After the Second World War, The Queen of Honolulu was performed in the Ohnsorg Theater in Hamburg , first during the 1950/51 season, then in 1965/66 and 1975/76 in a new version by Günther Siegmund with music by Walter Bullerdiek . The latter, staged by Günther Siegmund, was also shown as a television broadcast by NDR and marketed on video and DVD. A record version has also been published.

Contributors in the 1965/66 season:

Participants in the 1975/76 season: Hilde Sicks , Heidi Mahler , Jens Scheiblich , Jürgen Pooch , Werner Riepel , Edgar Bessen .

Radio plays

review

Fock himself assessed his work as weak.

In 1920, Albrecht Janssen wrote in the literary magazine Das literäre Echo : "Gorch Fock is walking the well-trodden paths in 'his Queen of Honolulu', and although his funny piece makes us laugh heartily, one looks for literary qualities here in vain."

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Aline Bussmann (ed.), Gorch Fock: Diary sheets and poems: Stars over the sea / Gorch Fock. Glogau, Hamburg 1917, p. 40.
  2. ↑ Friedrich W. Michelsen: Gorch Fock. Buske, Hamburg 1984, ISBN 3-87118-659-7 , p. 33.
  3. ↑ Jürgen Köhlert, Jutta Duhn-Heitzmann: The Ohnsorg Theater. Chronicle of a happy house. Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-373-7 .
  4. ^ German-Austrian Literature Society: The literary echo. Monthly journal for literature lovers, Volume 22. F. Fontane & co., 1920, p. 1015.