Big diatribe on the city wall

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Big diatribe on the city wall is a play by Tankred Dorst , which premiered on September 27, 1961 under the direction of Ulrich Brecht in the Kammerspiele of the Lübeck Theater. The one-act play is based on a Chinese shadow play . A woman and a soldier who is stranger to her must make it credible that they have been a couple for four years.

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Standing at the foot of the wall, the fisherman's wife Fan Chin-ting calls out for the emperor and earns laughter from above. The young woman does not give up. She is the wife of soldier Hsüeh Li and wants her husband back. Because for many nights she lies alone in the shared fisherman's hut. Hsüeh Li serve as a guard at the southern city gate. Two officers suspect that the soldier could not have survived the last night attack by the external enemy. Nevertheless, the gracious emperor lets the surviving soldiers of the southern gate march in front of the young woman. One of them poses as Hsüeh Li. He cannot show the amulet Fan Chin-ting had put on her husband when he went to the soldiers. Nevertheless, the stranger dares the dangerous game. Of course the woman doesn't know him either, but she says to herself: “The emperor took a man from me, he must give me a man.” The stranger, who wanted so much to leave the soldiers and go with the young woman, is standing not through the game and step back into the link behind the city wall. One of the officers calls him a deserter.

Using the amulet, Fan Chin-ting's husband is identified among the dead last night. One of the officers throws it down to the widow after he has read the text: "Fan Chin-ting gives this amulet to her husband Hsüeh Li in loyalty on the day of the wedding."

The woman loudly reviles her dead husband, who went to the soldiers voluntarily, and is chased away from the foot of the wall.

Self-testimony

In the afterword to the book edition of the play, Tankred Dorst gives information about his intentions in matters of drama . He does not present tragedy , but rather farce , grotesque and parable . A figure shouldn't preach morality, but make a laugh. So something like a clown is favored. But Tankred Dorst is increasingly concerned with the social framework in which a “certain person” acts. Nevertheless, the above-mentioned morality should not be neglected. Just like questioning societal norms, morals must also be put to the test. One-act stage in front of an insecure, skeptical and suspicious audience.

Film adaptations

  • October 11, 1962, TV-Movie, Norway. Director: Per Bronken.
  • March 10, 1963, TV movie, Germany. Director: Gerhard Klingenberg . With Ida Krottendorf .
  • May 25, 1964, TV film, Finland: “Suuri parjauspuhe kaupungin muurilla”. Director: Pekka Koskinen and Eugen Terttula. With Sylvi Salonen, Veijo Pasanen and Toivo Lehto.
  • 1967, short film, black and white, Spain: “La gran plegaria ante los muros de la ciudad”. Production: Escuela Oficial de Cinematografía. Director: Carlos Gortari. With Esperanza Alonso, Antonio Carrasco and Urbano Loyola.

literature

  • Tankred Dorst: Big diatribe on the city wall. Freedom for Clemens. The curve. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1962. Collection Theater Texts 5. 119 pages

Used edition

Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

Partly in English, Spanish and Finnish

  1. ^ Günther Erken bei Arnold, p. 85, right column, 3rd entry
  2. ↑ Tankred Dorst in the edition used, p. 213, 4th Zvo
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 188, 18. Zvo
  4. ↑ Edition used, pp. 212–216
  5. ^ TV film Germany 1963
  6. ↑ suomi Eugen Terttula
  7. ↑ eng. Sylvi Salonen
  8. ↑ eng. Veijo Pasanen
  9. ^ TV film Finland
  10. ^ Spanish Escuela Oficial de Cine
  11. ^ Short film Spain