March, an artist's life

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March, an artist's life is a play by Heinar Kipphardt .

About the piece

Between 1973 and 1975 , Kipphardt wrote the screenplay for his film The Life of the Schizophrenic Poet Alexander M. , which was first broadcast on ZDF in 1975 . Directed by Voitek Jasny, Igor Luther was responsible for the camera , and Ernst Jacobi played the title role . A year later, in 1976, he presented the same subject as his first novel, entitled March . Shortly afterwards, Kipphardt wrote a radio play version entitled March - an artist's life for Bayerischer Rundfunk , which Ulrich Gerhardt directed in 1977. It was not until October 16, 1980 that the play under the title March - an artist's life was premiered in the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus . Directed by Roberto Ciulli and Helmut Schäfer .

For Kipphardt, the story of the unfortunate anti-hero Alexander März is a reckoning with psychiatry . For him, schizophrenia and psychotic illnesses are ultimately socially caused: very sensitive people break because of what family and society do to them. Like the schizophrenic poet March, who sets himself on fire in front of his doctor because he can no longer find his way in this world. Authentic material served as the basis for March : the methodological dispute in psychiatry, own research results in mental hospitals, patient histories and in particular the poems of the schizophrenic author Ernst Herbeck (pseudonym: Alexander Herbich), published by his psychiatrist Leo Navratil .

The plot

1st elevator

In the prologue and in the beginning of the first act, the audience is introduced to the inner workings of the clinic. The patients are presented, their backgrounds briefly sketched and the various behaviors of the schizophrenics illustrated in some scenes in the lounge. The viewer notices very soon that there are strong differences not only between the patients, but also between the doctors; these are also created in the opening scenes. What is noticeable throughout the entire act, however, is a single patient who almost always takes special positions and thus wins the viewer's increased curiosity. This curiosity is not unfounded, because soon, especially in the second part, most of the other patients will disappear from the scene and the events will concentrate on March. Busy with tapes of previous conversations with March's parents, we meet the doctors more and more frequently at their desks, while March almost seems to hear all of this alone in an adjoining room, as he can tell the past events in a few words, often in poetry commented in a strange way. In two scenes, March is all alone on a fallow field, and the way he is constantly fighting the wind there and letting bits of words fly, it becomes clear that psychiatry is by no means the only thing that concerns him. Once, however, his loneliness is briefly disturbed by a patient, Hanna, who after the first eye contact quickly leaves, apologetically.

2nd elevator

In the second act, the audience is whisked away into the past of March. For better therapy, Kofler, the senior physician, is studying March's medical file, which is partly read to the audience or partly played back in action. One learns of his admission with schizophrenic symptoms, his constant verbal resistance to the clinicians, his discharge after six months and his return to psychiatry and an outbreak. In addition to the symptoms such as paranoia, which are repeatedly made clear in discussions with doctors, and the mental illness of March, the viewer also gets an insight into the strange but at the same time ingenious actions in social circles that also make him appear as an outsider.

3rd elevator

Back in the present. At the beginning of the third act, the activities of the doctors Herbst and Kofler to stimulate the patient to do more work come to the fore. They endeavor to get closer to the patient, especially through one-on-one discussions, but efforts by the two of them to combine male and female patients are unsuccessful, as the Clinic Director Feuerstein is hardly willing to invest any energy in such changes, since he is working on the old therapy methods anyway want to hold on. In the meantime, March has withdrawn into a pronounced mutism, rarely expresses itself and when it does, then mostly through letters. He lets the doctors' efforts off. Hallucinations become more and more violent and he asks more and more often to stop the treatments and to execute him. After a fake suicide in March with a bomb, Kofler suddenly manages to get in touch with March. In the presence of other doctors such as B. Herbst shows a pronounced negativism in March and uses linguistic sentence rotations that are typical for schizophrenics; these symptoms do not appear in conversations with Kofler alone. Furthermore, sexuality in asylum is discussed and a relationship between March and Hanna is initiated. March gains access to a kitchen where Hanna works and shows his affection. The two soon meet more often in the open and talk especially about their past. It is there that Kofler meets the two, who in the meantime had tried to decipher the past of March. In March, the memory of his mother, whom he described as dead, was particularly expressed, but this contradicted reality. After a stormy dance evening in the department, where März again actively contributed with a critical speech regarding the clinic, between Hanna and März there is a closer meeting in a laundry room, which is forcibly ended by nurses. Shortly afterwards, Hanna and März are reported missing. In a suicide note, März makes strange demands for a physical improvement he has planned.

4th elevator

März and Hanna have fled to a lonely dwelling in the Zillertal in order to find a place to work there where they are not so easy to find. Most of the time you are in good spirits and enjoy the new freedoms, memories of your family past rarely come up in March, the clinic no longer plays a role. But when a Canadian mountaineer, wounded, finds shelter in this old farmers' dwelling, where Hanna and März are also housed, Hanna gradually relapses. She suffers from paranoia and even avoids contact with March. This situation causes the two to interrupt their new life for a short time.

5th elevator

März and Hanna went to Kofler's residence to ask for help for Hanna. But they agree that they never want to go to Lohberg psychiatry again. Kofler agrees to help Hanna, but he doesn't get around because police officers catch those who have escaped and transport them back to Lohberg. Once there, they are separated. The child that Hanna has had in the meantime is torn away from her. March is no longer ready to talk to doctors and sits on his bed all day. The efforts initiated by Kofler and Herbst to change something in this situation continue to meet with insufficient hearing at Feuerstein. Kofler's nerves seem tense and irritable until he even loses control of Feuerstein and yells at him that he is killing March. March has disappeared. March had compared itself to Christ again and again. In a conversation between Kofler and Herbst, March reappears with a crown of thorns on his head, scourged like Christ. Kofler still believes in another joke when März holds an explosive device over his head, but the detonation takes place ... With a letter to Kofler, März says goodbye to the clinic and asks that he be forgotten.

The roles

Patient

  • Alexander March
  • Karl Fuchs
  • Albert Zenger
  • Lorenz Folgner
  • Max Ebert
  • Herbert Duwe
  • Franz Kuhlmann

Patients

  • Hanna Graetz
  • Angelika Lauffer
  • Frieda Bausch

Doctors, nurses

  • Dr. Kofler
  • Dr. Flint
  • Dr. Ines hope
  • Dr. Else Herbst
  • Huber (carer)
  • 2. Carer

other roles

  • Mother from March
  • Father from march
  • Creszenzia
  • Son of Karl Fuchs
  • Daughter-in-law of Fuchs
  • Canadian climber
  • Kitchen lady
  • Police Council
  • 2nd policeman
  • Ministerial Officer
  • Night watchman

filming

"Life of the schizophrenic poet Alexander March" (1975)

Web links