The real story of the Ah Q (stage work)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The true story of Ah Q. Nach Lu Xun is a play in eight acts by Christoph Hein based on the novel of the same name by Lu Xun .

The play was premiered on December 22, 1983 under the direction of Alexander Lang at the Deutsches Theater Berlin . It saw 45 performances in the following season in Berlin. The piece was premiered on November 15, 1984 in Strasbourg and Paris (title "Entre chien et loup"), on December 16, 1984 in Kassel ( FRG - first performance 1984, directed by Valentin Jeker ), and on February 20, 1985 in Graz (Austrian first performance , Directed by Hein Hartwig) and premiered on May 30, 1985 at the Theater am Neumarkt in Zurich (directed by Peter Schweiger). In 1985 there were other productions - on June 4 in Bern, on June 15 in Düsseldorf (Lu Xun), on September 20 in the Teatro Darainha in Portugal and on December 19 in Nuremberg. The play was released in Bordeaux (February 5, 1986), Wiesbaden (April 18, 1986), Hamburg (October 9, 1986), Opole (October 20, 1986), Łódź , Tübingen (February 25, 1987, directed by Meinhard Zanger ), Vienna (March 7, 1987), Schwedt (April 24, 1987), West Berlin (June 20, 1987, directed by Friedhelm Ptok ), Saarbrücken (May 30, 1988), Ústí nad Labem (October 1988), Rio de Janeiro ( November 1988, directed by Sergio Fonta), Paderborn (June 2, 1989), Gießen (1989, directed by Meinhard Zanger), Munich (January 1990), Nordhausen (April 1990), Krefeld - Mönchengladbach (April 24, 1990), Altenburg (September 1990), Zwickau , Chemnitz and Neustrelitz .

The text was published in 1984 by Luchterhand Verlag in Darmstadt.

Tragic: Two protagonists of the only five characters in the staff die. Funny: The author takes the novel of the same name by the Chinese Lu Xun from 1921 as a model and in his play he carelessly mixes up all possible Chinese and Western cultural elements in an anachronistic and motley way.

content

action

  1. Ah Q and Wang Krätzebart are presented to the audience as half-starved tramps. In winter the two men found shelter in a draughty temple ruin, which, according to the stage instructions, is reminiscent of a granary. It snowed into the dilapidated building. Still - the two of them settle down on their mattresses next to small snowdrifts.
  2. Ah Q doesn't make empty words. He and Wang debate with the ancient temple guardian about enemies of freedom, blood, revolution and anarchy . The temple guardian locks them up overnight.
  3. The young nun Maria Martha Martirio brings meager food every Thursday. Actually, Ah Q and Wang were supposed to repair the temple roof. They do not think about it, but wait for the revolution supposedly approaching from the city. Ah Q desires the nun. He promises her a beautiful negligee. She doesn't want to sleep with him. There is a fight. The nun can escape.
    On the orders of the venerable Mr. Zhao, Ah Q is now to be punished with twenty lashes by the village police officer, Maske. The mask is named after his face, which the venerable Mr. Zhao once defaced with a welding torch. He's been a beast ever since.
    Ah Q, who fears the steel whip, makes excuses. Mask cannot believe the convict's excuse and asks the venerable lord. Result: twenty is increased to sixty.
  4. Half dead by the mask, Ah Q must be lying. Only the word anarchy can in some way uplift the badly beaten person. His stay in the village should not be longer. As soon as he gets back on his feet, he wants to get close to the revolutionaries in town.
  5. Ah Q comes back wealthy - with a beautiful negligee in his luggage - from the city to Wang's draughty dwelling. The egomaniacal Ah Q stole possession.
  6. The nun Maria rejects the gift. Ah Q has bad news from the noisy revolution out of town. The anarchists among the revolutionaries have their heads cut off with a sharp ax.
  7. A stranger from the city carries the revolution to the village. It turns out the loner Wang Krätzebart, the great theoretician of the revolution, has simply been forgotten. But the Venerable Mr. Zhao is now called the Revolutionary Lord.
    It looks like Maria has forgiven Ah Q for its carelessness. The nun brings food and the latest news to the two imprisoned anarchists Wang and Ah Q. Maria's monastery was renamed "Revolutionary Monastery for the Immaculate Conception" and the revolutionary Mr. Zhao was broken into. Now the viewer has the impression that the nun likes the negligee because she is toying with the acceptance of the gift. Ah Q confesses his love to Maria. He wants to sleep with her again. Again both fight. When Ah Q rapes the nun, she dies.
  8. Ah Q, because of the break-in, the revolutionary Mr. Zhao's head is cut off by the village police officer. During the execution, the delinquent celebrated the anarchy and then died for an act that he could not have committed. The temple guardian must report the death of Mary to the revolutionary lord. Before that, Wang wants to run away.

Self-testimony

Hein in an interview with Gregor Edelmann: Anarchists are "social dreamers and stimulants".

premiere

In 1983 Dieter Montag played Ah Q at the Kammerspiele of the German Theater Berlin , Christian Grashof played Wang Krätzebart, Roman Kaminski the temple guard , Gudrun Ritter the nun and Friedo Solter the village policeman mask.

reception

Comments after stage performances

Berlin premiere

Ingrid Seyfarth (“ Sonntag ”, number 3, 1984) puzzles over the meaning of the overly loud GDR rock, which is not played sparingly . Ernst Schumacher (“ Berliner Zeitung ” on January 10, 1984) was not impressed by this premiere “with a lot of noise” . The struggles of the time would be reflected too vaguely - because they were “striking”. Thus, the viewer is denied any "empathy". There was no prospect of this “ waiting for Godot ”. Even Martin Linzer ( " Theater der Zeit ", Issue 3, 1984) to give his thoughts on the premiere. He is based on Hein's remark that the time for his characters in the piece is no longer quite tangible. Director Lang wanted to substitute the viewer for that time. Of course, the game is anything but clear. Thus, the viewer could not get a “message”, but rather a “message”.

First performance in France

Andreas Roßmann (“ Frankfurter Rundschau ” of December 12, 1984) sees the French premiere as a comedy in which the characters desperately want to survive in the “cold of the world”.

Federal German premiere in Kassel

Roßmann (“Frankfurter Rundschau” of December 25, 1984) considers the term “true story” that gave it its title. Accordingly, the piece gives the audience starting points to fantasize about their own state of mind. Edith Gerhards makes it clear (" Deutsche Volkszeitung " of January 4, 1985) that it is not about the Chinese revolution of 1911 , but about objectors of our society. More precisely - the inability of two revolutionaries to bring about the upheaval is being played out. Heinz Klunker (“ Theater heute ”, volume 3, 1985) regrets the East-West communication difficulties that would come to light in the context of the performance of the play.

First performance in Switzerland

Dominik Hunger (“ Basler Zeitung ” of June 7, 1985) goes into two particularities. While the ideologues' talk about the revolution dominated the Zurich production, the Bern performance emphasized the violence inherent in the play.

Meetings

In his essay, Hörnigk gives a fitting brief description of the piece: The revolution fails because of the inactivity of its "actors". In addition, Ah Q and Wang endure all conceivable humiliations. Hörnigk describes the untraditional method of distancing himself from reality, which Hein strives for with dramaturgical means, as "overpointing", "coarsening" and " imitation through clowning".

Krumbholz goes into the "ascetic" and "theoretician" Wang. His theory is simply called anarchy. The justice that seems to be happening to Ah Q is nothing more than a sequence of absurdities. Krumbholz takes the temple with its broken roof as a symbol for the rotten GDR. Töteberg's review also primarily revolves around concepts such as GDR and anarchy. Töteberg quotes a 1985 interview with Heins. In it the author "explains" his piece. Ah Q and Wang are infatuated with anarchy because the first step in their revolution is tabula rasa. The two lack an ideology : Kiewitz speaks of “intellectual homelessness” as the core of the play. The result is the repeatedly propagated anarchism . The wretched figure of the Ah Q also has its positive side. By confessing his guilt and dying, Ah Q is doing tabula rasa in his own way and standing as a martyr.

Albrecht names eleven further works.

literature

Text output

Used edition
  • "The True Story of Ah Q. After Lu Xun". P. 5–60 in: Christoph Hein: The knights of the round table and other pieces. 264 pages. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1990 (1st edition), ISBN 3-351-01632-8

Secondary literature

  • Martin Krumbolz: “Utopia and Illusion. The working history in the pieces by Christoph Hein. ”Pp. 28–35 in Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.):“ Text + criticism. Journal of Literature. Booklet 111. Christoph Hein. “Munich, July 1991, ISBN 3-88377-391-3
  • Michael Töteberg : “The anarchist and the party secretary . The GDR theater criticism and its difficulties with Christoph Hein. ”Pp. 36–43 in: ibid.
  • Manfred Brauneck (Hrsg.), Gérard Schneilin (Hrsg.): Theaterlexikon. Terms and epochs, stages and ensembles . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1992. 1138 pages, ISBN 3-499-55465-8
  • Klaus Hammer (Ed.): “Chronicler without a message. Christoph Hein. A work book. Materials, information, bibliography. ”315 pages. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-351-02152-6
  • Frank Hörnigk: " The true story of the Ah Q - a clown game with fantasy". Pp. 195-199 in: ibid.
  • Christl Kiewitz: “The silent scream. Crisis and criticism of the socialist intelligentsia in the work of Christoph Hein. ”308 pages. Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 1995 (Diss. University of Augsburg 1994), ISBN 3-86057-137-0 (pp. 113–142)
  • Terrance Albrecht: “Reception and temporality of the work of Christoph Heins.” 191 pages. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 3-631-35837-7

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Hammer, p. 252, 14. Zvu and p. 253 below (the Ah Q played Peter Lerchbaumer )
  2. ↑ Premiere on January 10, 1992
  3. ↑ Hein creates tension with the frizzy juxtaposition of China and the West (Kiewitz, p. 114 above).
  4. ↑ see also the entry Absurdes Theater bei Brauneck and Schneilin, p. 47, from 13. Zvu and also Kiewitz, p. 134, 10. Zvu
  5. ↑ This is due to Hein's existentialism (Kiewitz, p. 114 middle).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hammer, p. 264, 10th Zvu
  2. ↑ Albrecht, p. 80, 8. Zvo
  3. ↑ Töteberg, p. 40, 25. Zvo
  4. ↑ Hammer, p. 264 below - 265 above
  5. ↑ Hammer, pp. 264-267
  6. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 113, middle
  7. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 121
  8. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 130 below
  9. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 132 below and p. 136 above
  10. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 132 below
  11. ↑ quoted in Albrecht, p. 74, 3rd Zvu
  12. ↑ Program for the premiere
  13. ↑ Hammer, p. 248, above
  14. ↑ Hammer, pp. 248-249
  15. ↑ Hammer, p. 249 middle
  16. ↑ Hammer, p. 251 above
  17. ↑ Hammer, p. 252 middle
  18. ↑ Hammer, p. 253
  19. ↑ Hörnigk, p. 195 10. Zvo
  20. ↑ Hörnigk, p. 196, 7th Zvu and p. 197, 7th Zvu
  21. ↑ see also Kiewitz, p. 113 below
  22. ↑ Krumbholz, pp. 31–32
  23. ↑ Töteberg, p. 40 above
  24. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 115 above
  25. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 125 middle
  26. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 127 above
  27. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 141, 16. Zvu
  28. ↑ Kiewitz, p. 142
  29. ↑ Albrecht, pp. 184-185