Ice Age (Tankred Dorst)
Eiszeit is a play by Tankred Dorst , which premiered on March 15, 1973 under the direction of Peter Zadek in the Schauspielhaus Bochum .
By the old man, a 90-year-old writer in a Norwegian retirement home, Tankred Dorst means none other than Knut Hamsun - Nobel Prize for Literature 1920 - in the last year of his life. Knut Hamsun died on February 19, 1952.
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In the park of that old people's home, the writer meets the tramp Kristian, a good old friend from childhood. Kristian knows very well about the fate of the many playmates from back then. The majority has since died. Kristian gleefully states that his interlocutor is "locked up" in the old people's home. His much younger wife, the former actress Vera and their son Paul, who was not allowed to see his family for almost a year, are now allowed to visit him three hours a day. Both are staying at the nearby Fjord Hotel.
A three-person committee, which Dorst calls the “commission” at the first appearance and “court” at the second, takes the “ traitor ” into prayer in the dining room of the old people's home. The unyielding gentlemen are the melancholy journalist Reich, the shy director of the savings bank from the nearby district town and the pastor Holm. The journalist usually remains ironic and distant because he actually considers this inquisition to be pointless. The petty-bourgeois savings bank director also holds back respectfully from the great Norwegian poet. It is Pastor Holm who insists on justice because he was imprisoned during the German occupation of Norway . Justice in this case would mean that the old man's entire fortune could be confiscated.
Pastor Holm has a long series of allegations, which particularly concern the Nazi- friendly attitude of the old man during the occupation. Whenever things get tough for the writer, he plays deaf. The journalist Reich accuses the old man of berating Ossietzky, a party writer who was unworthy of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize . The old man, who professes to be an individualist, remains unapologetic and stubborn with his preconceived notions about the winner.
Pastor Holm addresses the old man's audience with Hitler in 1941 and the old man's obituary for Hitler in 1945.
The above word of traitor comes from the mouth of Oswald Kronen. As a 16-year-old, the son of the enterprising shipowner Kronen wanted to kill the old man with a stolen German hand grenade, but abandoned it and joined the partisans for three years . Oswald calls the now pardoned father, who is successfully doing business again, a collaborator . During his visit to the old people's home, Oswald did not kill the old man again, but later blew himself up in the loneliness on a headland with his car.
Throughout the piece, Paul and Vera are devoted and devoted to caring for the old man. In the end, they consider turning away from their unaffected patriarch. An art journey through Italy down to Taormina is intended to initiate the departure. But you should definitely only go south as a couple.
reception
- Hellmuth Karasek : About the unassailable age. In: The time . March 23, 1973.
filming
- 1975, Ice Age , directed by Peter Zadek. With OE Hasse as the old man, Hannelore Hoger as Vera, Walter Schmidinger as Paul, Ulrich Wildgruber as Oswald Kronen, Heinz Bennent as Pastor Holm, Hans Hirschmüller as Reich journalist, Hermann Lause as Sparkasse director and Hans Mahnke as Kristian.
literature
- Ice Age - One piece . (= edition suhrkamp. 610). Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 1973, ISBN 3-518-00610-X .
Used edition
- Ice age. In: Tankred Dorst. Volume 4: Political Pieces. 1st edition. Suhrkamp Verlag, 1987, ISBN 3-518-02658-5 , pp. 263-343.
Secondary literature
- Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): Tankred Dorst. (= text + criticism issue 145). Richard Boorberg Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-88377-626-2 .
- Gero von Wilpert : Lexicon of world literature . German Authors A-Z . Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-520-83704-8 , p. 126, left column
annotation
- ↑ A judgment in that direction is not spoken in the piece.