The Villa (Tankred Dorst)

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The Villa is a play by Tankred Dorst , which premiered on September 20, 1980 in the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus under the direction of Jaroslav Chundela and at the same time in the Württemberg State Theater in Stuttgart under the direction of Günter Krämer .

action

Anno 1948 very close to Grünitz (Dorst means his place of birth Sonneberg ) - i.e. in the eastern zone : the manufacturer Kurt Bergk and his wife Elsa had to take refugees into their villa - the actor Herzog, the student Robert Scharwenka and his mother as well as the blind Mr. Dussek and his sister. Bergk only employs twenty workers. Weiss and Rebhan - two communists - take inventory in the Bergkschen sheet metal processing factory . Bergk wants the two comrades to believe that the packaged punches are not intended for transport to the West . The entrepreneur does not want to abandon the factory inherited from his fathers.

Elsa Bergk's marriage is unhappy. She screams her contempt in the face of husband Kurt in front of third parties. For example, Elsa warms up the old story of Kurt's Polish mother. After the war, Kurt claims that he protected his mother from the Nazis until 1945. And when his mother died in Dresden, Kurt breathed a sigh of relief. The accused does not deny the monstrous allegations of his wife, but only states that his marriage can no longer be cemented. Logically, the viewer experiences Elsa's relationship with Heinrich Merz. The latter tries to be a playwright. Because he is not allowed to study in the Eastern Zone as a commoner, he went to the West. Now and then he visits his mother and older brother Tilmann in Grünitz. On this occasion, he benefits from his local knowledge of the inner-German border area near Grünitz. Heinrich smuggles a couple of Saxons to the west. Because the people's police catch cross-border commuters who do not know the location.

Elsa went to school with Tilmann, so she is older than Heinrich. She wants to be taken west by Heinrich. To Elsa's chagrin, Heinrich finally sticks to the young Fraulein Franz - known as Fränzchen. The father of the budding actress Fränzchen “was a very bad Nazi”. Heinrich, who would like to take Fränzchen with him, points out that the Communists had killed Mr. Franz. But, it seems, that is no reason for Fränzchen to change zones with Heinrich.

After Heinrich finally decided in favor of the younger one, Elsa took an overdose of sleeping pills .

Subplots

The structure of the German pieces (see edition used) surprises the viewer in one point. Minor characters get meaning in another piece. For example, Mr. Duke in the "Villa" - the communist was imprisoned in the concentration camp and became theater director in the eastern zone - is an object of dispute on the Chimborazo .

Another communist, the young student Robert Scharwenka, must be looked at along with his mother. The boy is looking for his way in the east zone. And the mother simply cannot believe - in 1948 there were no more men in East Germany.

reception

  • According to Wolfgang Höbel , Dorst processed his own family history.
  • Bekes has three illustrations of the two world premieres on pages 50 and 51. Chundela put the question of staying or leaving to the fore and Krämer put lifelong dreams on the stage. Bekes quotes an illuminating note from Dorst on the characters in the play.
  • In Barner's literary history, the editor of “The Seventies. Drama and Theater ”, criticism of ideology does not dominate the play.

literature

Used edition

Secondary literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günther Erken bei Arnold, p. 86, right column, 5th entry from above
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 429, 2nd line vo
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Höbel
  4. ↑ Bekes, p. 51
  5. ↑ Dorst, quoted in Bekes, p. 54, 5th line vo
  6. ↑ Barner, 678, 11th line vu