Tiny Alice

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Data
Title: Tiny Alice
Original title: Tiny Alice
Original language: English
Author: Edward Albee
Publishing year: 1960
Premiere: December 29, 1964
Place of premiere: Billy Rose Theater in New York City
Place and time of the action: Cardinal's garden and residence of Miss Alice somewhere in the US in the 20th century
people
  • cardinal
  • Lawyer
  • Julian, private secretary to the cardinal
  • Miss Alice
  • Butler from Miss Alice

Tiny Alice (German: Tiny Alice , translated by Pinkas Braun 1968) is a first time in 1960 published three acts - spectacle of American playwright Edward Albee , which premiered in January 1965 at the Billy Rose Theater-in New York. The audience reacted to the premiere mostly unsettled and confused; The play was also received very controversially in the theater reviews and reviews and interpreted in extremely different ways.

action

The opening scene of the first act takes place in the cardinal's garden somewhere in the United States. The cardinal receives the attorney's visit. The two have been linked by a longstanding hateful relationship since school. The lawyer is on behalf of a young, but extremely wealthy client who offers to donate an annual sum of 100 million to the Church for twenty years. The cardinal, who loses his dignity in the face of this high sum, unconditionally agrees to the only demand of the future donor, namely that his private secretary, lay brother Julian, visit the founder to settle the details of the agreement with her.

The second scene takes place in the library of a manor house, the residence of Miss Alice. While Julian waits to be received by Miss Alice, he looks at a precisely recreated doll's house model of the building. The model is clearly visible to the audience and, according to the scene instructions, is very important. The butler who receives him explains that there is a model of the model in every room of the castle and another model of the model in every room of the model - ad infinitum. The butler manages to learn something from Julian about his six-year stay in a mental institution . The lay brother reveals to him that he had lost his faith in God during this time because he had not got over the gap between the nature of God and the way people make use of God. God is not a “ puppet ”, but the “driving force”. Human beings would only create a false god in their own image. Since for him faith and his common sense are one and the same ( "my faith and my sanity ... are one and the same" ), he went to a sanatorium.

In the third scene of the first act, Julian meets Miss Alice in the drawing room of the residence; Instead of the expected young and beautiful woman, however, in this comic-like scene he faces an ugly, obviously hard of hearing, old woman walking on crutches. After a short time, however, the old woman takes off her disguise with mask and wig and transforms into the expected appearance of Miss Alice. The young woman initially speaks lasciviously and vulgarly about her former lover, the butler, but then shows herself to be a flirtatious , curious and lovable being when she tries to win Julian's affection . However, when it comes to business, it turns out to be factual and tough. Miss Alice is herself the figure of a figure; besides, she is only an imitation of another Alice who lives in the doll's house and is not addressed as a miss.

While Miss Alice tries to seduce Julian in a subtle, rather gentle way, Julian reveals to her that he had an affair in the sanatorium with a neurotic woman who delusively imagined she was the Virgin Mary . The woman claimed to be pregnant by him; The doctor had told him, however, that she had died of cancer.

The second act takes place a few days later. In the first scene, the lawyer assaults Miss Alice because he is jealous of her tender feelings for Julian, even though he himself has induced her to seduce him in order to put him to the test and detach him from the church.

While Julian admires the neglected chapel and the wine cellar in the castle, a fire breaks out in the chapel of the model, which signals a fire in the real chapel. Julian, the butler, and the lawyer rush to the chapel to fight the flames. Miss Alice, meanwhile, prays in an evocative prayer chant for the rescue of the chapel. Julian returns and reports that the chapel's altar has been destroyed. He asks for an explanation for the simultaneous fires in "both dimensions"; Fraulein Aice only begs him to move into the manor house, as this is "easier" for him ( "It will be easier. For you" ).

In the second scene of this act, the lawyer and the butler make plans for a marriage between Julian and Miss Alice, which the cardinal is to carry out. The lawyer promises the “real” Alice in the model that she would “get” Julian and that he would “belong” to her by marrying Miss Alice. In the following scene, Miss Alice uses Julian's lifelong dream of sacrifice and martyrdom to seduce him. As he hugs her naked body, she exclaims: “ He will be yours, Alice! "(Eng .:" It will be yours, Alice! ").

In the third act, Julian marries Miss Alice. The lay brother regards this “violent upheaval” in his life as “the work of God”. The wedding is to be celebrated, but the bride stays away from the festive ceremony for a long time . In an increasingly sarcastic conversation, the lawyer and cardinal call Julian a “lucky guy” who has found what he is striving for: love, wealth and “a kind of private fame”.

After the ceremony is over, the cardinal urges the lay brother to accept whatever may come. During the ritual , everyone drinks to the model's real Alice. In the further course of the plot Julian finally feels betrayed (" betrayed ") when he is told that he will have to stay behind with the real Alice if the others leave. When Julian refuses to do so, despite the cardinal's orders, the lawyer shoots him with a pistol. Thereupon Miss Alice confesses to the dying Julian that she was only an "illusion" and could only try to be like the real Alice. In a Pietà scene, as the stage directions say, she then takes Julian in her arms.

The three authors of the plot slowly leave the stage while Julian speaks the twelfth psalm as it were in a crucifixion scene ("How long do you keep your face hidden from me?"). As he dies, he realizes that "all pain is awareness and every consciousness is pain", stammered a theology without God, then hears breathing in the model and vaguely senses that "something" is in the room: "It is the shadow of a tremendous being", as it says in Albee's director's note. The play ends with Julian's death monologue and his last words: “The bride is waiting for you, my Alice. ... Oh, Lord, my God, I was expecting you. ... I submit to you, Alice, for you have come to me. God, Alice ... I submit to your will. "( " The bridegroom waits for thee, my Alice ... I accept thee, Alice, for thou art come to me. God, Alice, I accept thy will. " ) . Then the light gradually fades and the curtain slowly falls.

Interpretative approach

In Tiny Alice , Albee for the first time dispenses with a realistic basic or starting situation that allows a psychologically motivated, comprehensible knot of the threads of the plot. The characters in this piece are unidentifiable fictions that represent an internal process and, as in TS Eliot's The Cocktailparty (1950), move on both a religious and a profane level. For this reason, Tiny Alice , which the author himself described as a mystery play , is at the same time a kind of salon intrigue with all the characteristics of a crime or villain play.

Already in the prologue to the first scene of the work, Albee points out in the stage directions that the two red cardinals (" Richmondena cardinalis ") do not have to be real birds in the birdcage in the cardinal's garden . The opening of the piece shows its characteristics right from the start: the reflection of realities. The flirting of the lawyer with the birds, whose name he smugly identifies with the office of head of the church, expresses a dominant mood right from the start, which is usually clearly noticeable in the following scenes: the homo-erotic tension between bisexual figures Except for Miss Alice and Julian.

In the endlessly continuing dollhouse model, Albee's technique of disillusioning reality is shown in a confusing way . A reality exists beyond illusion , but what can be grasped from it cannot be defined. Albee's intention of allegorical mirroring of realities, which begins with the irony of the two cardinal birds in the prologue, continues with the model in the model and the butler's explanation that profession and name are identical: he, the butler, is also called Butler.

The figure of Miss Alice is also mirrored several times; she is herself the figure of a figure, who in turn is only the copy or imitation of another Alice who lives in the doll's house and is not addressed as a “Miss”. Miss Alice is thus at best the representative of the real Alice and represents as a person that which can no longer be personalized . Albee's mirroring technique is also formative in the final scene of the first act: In his story of the years in the asylum, Julian speaks of a (former) mansion - just like the one in which he now meets Fraulein Alice. There he met a sick person who, in her hallucinatory delusion, believed she was the mother of Jesus - at the same time a mediator to God as Miss Alice to the real Alice. Julian's erotic union with this woman at the time was at the same time a religious act for him : as a fervent believer, he hoped that he would merge with God. In the further course of the play, Julian also unites with the mediator to form Alice through his marriage. This in turn will leave him; Nevertheless, in the dying scene at the end of the play, Julian is closer than ever to the real Alice in the dollhouse, whom he in turn equates with God.

In this game of Albees, the truth turns out to be imagination, and in the imagination again truth seems to be hidden. When the lawyer speaks of love to Miss Alice in Act II, he means his greed for possessions. As a human person he is so lifeless that, according to Miss Alice, he cannot even sweat; his body is as impersonal as he is: "dry, numb, spongy ... dead".

The ironic trinity lawyer-cardinal-Miss Alice bears the hallmarks of the impersonal in a characteristic form; As soon as human impulses such as greed for power or possession or sexual needs are felt, the characters are called to order again by being reminded that it is only about a game in which they play their role as a personifying abstraction and realizing henchman Have strangers to play with.

The sole purpose of Julian's seduction by Miss Alice is to free him from that concept of love, which is only modeled on literature . The test that is put to him here can only be passed through his complete self-abandonment. Julian, however, fails in this regard; he cannot prove himself because he misunderstands Miss Alice when she speaks of the marital union: what is meant is not the union with her, but with the other of the same name: "Come on, marry Alice, she wants you so ... Oh, Alice needs you and your victim. "

At the end of the second act, Julian, who has long since ceased to follow the rules of celibacy , resembles the lawyer in a certain way: he, too, equates love with possession, because he wants to marry the imitation of Miss Alice instead of the real Alice in a model. After the completed wedding ceremony in the third act, Julian is for the lawyer and the cardinal "the righteous, healthy peasant lad, who came from the heart of the country", who "found what he was striving for", namely love, wealth and fame.

In this situation Julian embodies the personification of the deformed American Dream : Here he depicts the American archetype , which is forced to gain experience in order to assert itself in the world, and in doing so incurs guilt. The encounter with beauty, wealth, possessions and the opposite sex induce him to give up his spiritual innocence , so that only the image of his original perfection remains. However, in this work by Albee, he is given one last chance in the confrontation with death.

The mystery Julian seeks all the time is nonexistent for Albee; people create this mystery for themselves. Ultimately, it is chance that decides fate : In the end, the lay brother is “miserably left behind: crucified on the beam of his illusions” by the three scheming conspirators who are themselves only “the helpers of chance ”.

The universe remains empty; reality shows no discernible order or structure. The only thing left for the human being is the attempt to gain “awareness”, which in turn, as the piece says, amounts to a necessary, never-ending “pain”. This is how Tiny Alice Albee's maxim of existential philosophy becomes clear: Man has no choice but to accept himself. What at first appears as a mystery game becomes a mind game in this way.

Intertextual references

According to the lawyer, the residence of Miss Alice is said to have once been in England, which Miss Alice confirms to Julian: “Yes, that's true. Marked and shipped stone by stone ”. In response to Julian's objection that he believed it was a replica, the lawyer replied, “Oh, no. That would have been too easy. Although it is of course ... in its own way ... a replica. "

With this reference to England as the country of origin, Albee in Tiny Alice alludes covertly to Thomas More from England and a utopian portrayal of an ideal society in the novel Utopia (1516), the title of which translates as “nowhere” in Greek. This hidden intertextual thus serves admirably the deceptive intentions of the author in Tiny Alice ; In addition, those settlers come from England who wanted to create an “earthly kingdom of God” or a new “ paradise on earth ” in America with the help of their puritanical faith .

Moreover also comes Lewis Carroll's famous children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) from England, where the protagonist , also a little "Miss" Alice, equally experienced a miraculous world of reflections, transformations, hallucinations and fictions.

With More and Carroll as well as with the Puritans, ideas, dreams or hopes are always understood as an abstraction to be realized and thus as absolute reality. In the same way, the model in which Alice exists can be viewed as a “nowhere home”, to a certain extent as a “longing goal” of Julian, who is looking for this utopia in his exaggerated belief.

The opening of the third scene of Act II also includes an extended dialogue between Julian and Fäulin Alice about the erotic elation while riding on horseback in which Miss Alice a line from the poem "Love on the Farm" by DH Lawrence quotes, embedded in the entire animal metaphor of "Tiny Alice".

Background and history

The key idea for Tiny Alice came to Albee while reading a newspaper report by a man who had been imprisoned in a room that was in turn in an even larger room. This idea of ​​a nesting of possibilities fascinated Albee, especially with regard to the question of what is actually reality and how its essence can be recognized. For him as a playwright, the question arose in this context whether the destruction of illusion was perhaps the destruction of reality. This would be the case if the reality of consciousness is regarded as the essential reality. This problem appears at least as a possible thought in Tiny Alice , when Julian describes his hallucinations during his stay in the sanatorium and Miss Alice asks him if this is not the condition that is usually described as sane and normal.

Reception history

According to Hagopian, the numerous unresolved ambiguities in Tiny Alice turned out to be anathema ("unresolved ambiguities ... anathema to literary criticism") for both the audience and the theater critics .

Just a few days after the premiere, the director Alan Schneider counted eighteen different interpretations of the play's meaning.

The range of interpretative approaches ranged from religious-allegorical interpretations to attempts at sexual interpretation.

The author himself was extremely astonished at a press conference about this guessing game of the reviewers and interpreters, since according to his statements Tiny Alice is a "completely straightforward story", "which deals with the concepts of truth and illusion, symbol and reality" busy. According to Albee, the piece "should be viewed less as a psychological study or a philosophical treatise , and more as a metaphysical dream game."

The unidentifiable nature of the characters, however, has seduced both the audience and the literary critic into trying to decipher the characters in Tiny Alice - instead of simply accepting them as fictions.

Walter Kerr, a New York critic, describes this experience of the mysteriousness of fictional reality in his review of Tiny Alice after the world premiere : The viewer ends up feeling like someone who has gone to the abyss of a canyon because he heard something terrible had happened down there. But the view is blocked by those who have anticipated the audience: the characters in the play. “We can't see over their shoulders, we can't see what they're seeing. We hear them talk about the incident, exchange comments about it. You seem to understand what happened. And because they understand, they don't need to explain it to one another. They also don't seem to notice that others are standing behind them: waiting, wondering, irritated, looking in vain for a better vantage point. "

When asked by a journalist who wanted to know in an interview how the title of the work should be understood, Albee replied succinctly: "Something very small, enclosed in something else" ( "something small enclosed in something else" ) Tiny Alice shows that way a previously hidden side of the author, who - unlike in the earlier published pieces - takes a back seat to his work.

The German premiere of Tiny Alice , directed by Heinrich Koch in February 1966 at the Hamburg Schauspielhaus , mostly met with displeasure from the critics of the time due to the obscurity of the play. It was said as in a theater review of the time , however, on 11 February 1966 Albee begin his piece with a kind of mystery play, then could not decide between absurdity and symbolism.

Secondary literature

  • Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. (= Friedrich's playwright of the world theater. Volume 63). Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, pp. 85-94.
  • John V. Hagopian: Tiny Alice. In: Hermann J. Weiand (Ed.): Insight IV - Analyzes of Modern British and American Drama . Hirschgraben-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-454-12740-8 , pp. 192-199.
  • Ronald Hayman: Tiny Alice. In: Ronald Hayman: Contemporary Playwrights - Edward Albee . Heinemann Verlag, London 1971, ISBN 0-435-18409-1 , pp. 52-63.
  • Anita Stenz: Tiny Alice. In: Anita Stenz: Edward Albee: The Poet of Loss . De Gruyter Mouton Verlag, 1978, pp. 57-70.
  • Martin Christadler (ed.): American literature of the present in single representations (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 412). Kröner, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-520-41201-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tiny Alice . In: Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved July 5, 2014.
  2. ↑ See John V. Hagopian: Tiny Alice. In: Hermann J. Weiand (Ed.): Insight IV - Analyzes of Modern British and American Drama . Hirschgraben-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-454-12740-8 , p. 192 f. and Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 85 f.
  3. ↑ See John V. Hagopian: Tiny Alice. In: Hermann J. Weiand (Ed.): Insight IV - Analyzes of Modern British and American Drama . Hirschgraben-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-454-12740-8 , p. 192. See also Helmut M. Braem: Winzige Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 87 f.
  4. ↑ See John V. Hagopian: Tiny Alice. In: Hermann J. Weiand (Ed.): Insight IV - Analyzes of Modern British and American Drama . Hirschgraben-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-454-12740-8 , p. 192.
  5. ↑ a b See John V. Hagopian: Tiny Alice. In: Hermann J. Weiand (Ed.): Insight IV - Analyzes of Modern British and American Drama . Hirschgraben-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-454-12740-8 , p. 193.
  6. ↑ Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 91.
  7. ↑ See Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrichs Dramatiker des Welttheater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 92. See also John V. Hagopian: Tiny Alice. In: Hermann J. Weiand (Ed.): Insight IV - Analyzes of Modern British and American Drama . Hirschgraben-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-454-12740-8 , pp. 193 and 196 f.
  8. ↑ See Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrichs Dramatiker des Welttheater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 86. See also Ronald Hayman, Tiny Alice, on the references to Eliot's The Cocktail Party . In: Ronald Hayman: Contemporary Playwrights - Edward Albee . Heinemann Verlag, London 1971, ISBN 0-435-18409-1 , p. 57.
  9. ↑ See Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 86 f. See also John V. Hagopian: Tiny Alice. In: Hermann J. Weiand (Ed.): Insight IV - Analyzes of Modern British and American Drama . Hirschgraben-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-454-12740-8 , p. 198 f.
  10. ↑ See Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrichs Dramatiker des Welttheater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 88. For the interpretation of Tiny Alice as an allegory, see also John V. Hagopian: Tiny Alice. In: Hermann J. Weiand (Ed.): Insight IV - Analyzes of Modern British and American Drama . Hirschgraben-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-454-12740-8 , p. 194.
  11. ↑ See Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrichs Dramatiker des Welttheater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 89. See also John V. Hagopian: Tiny Alice. In: Hermann J. Weiand (Ed.): Insight IV - Analyzes of Modern British and American Drama . Hirschgraben-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-454-12740-8 , pp. 195-197.
  12. ↑ a b See Helmut M. Braem: Winzige Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 89 f.
  13. ↑ See Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 91.
  14. ↑ See Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 91 f.
  15. ↑ See Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 92 f.
  16. ↑ See Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 90.
  17. ↑ See also Helmut M. Braem: Winzige Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 90.
  18. ↑ Cf. on this and on the animal metaphor in Tiny Alice John V. Hagopian: Tiny Alice. In: Hermann J. Weiand (Ed.): Insight IV - Analyzes of Modern British and American Drama . Hirschgraben-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-454-12740-8 , p. 197.
  19. ^ Herbert Rauter: Edward Albee . In: Martin Christadler (ed.): American literature of the present in individual representations. Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-520-41201-2 , pp. 488-505, here p. 500.
  20. ↑ See John V. Hagopian: Tiny Alice. In: Hermann J. Weiand (Ed.): Insight IV - Analyzes of Modern British and American Drama . Hirschgraben-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-454-12740-8 , p. 199.
  21. ↑ See Helmut M. Braem: Tiny Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 85.
  22. ↑ See Ronald Hayman: Tiny Alice. In: Ronald Hayman: Contemporary Playwrights - Edward Albee . Heinemann Verlag, London 1971, ISBN 0-435-18409-1 , p. 62 f. See also the overview at Anita Stenz: Tiny Alice in more detail . In: Anita Stenz: Edward Albee: The Poet of Loss . De Gruyter Mouton Verlag 1978, ISBN 3-11-080307-0 , p. 57 f., Accessed online by Verlag de Gruyter [1] (fee-based access)
  23. ↑ Quoted from Helmut M. Braem: Winzige Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 85 f. See also Herbert Rauter: Edward Albee. In: Martin Christadler (ed.): American literature of the present in individual representations. Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-520-41201-2 , pp. 488-505, here p. 501.
  24. ↑ Quoted from Helmut M. Braem: Winzige Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 86 f.
  25. ↑ Quoted from Helmut M. Braem: Winzige Alice. In: Helmut M. Braem: Edward Albee. Friedrich's playwright of the world theater, Volume 63, Friedrich Verlag, Velber 1968, p. 85 f. and Herbert Rauter: Edward Albee. In: Martin Christadler (ed.): American literature of the present in individual representations. Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1972, ISBN 3-520-41201-2 , pp. 488-505, here p. 501.
  26. ↑ See Horst Frenz: American dramatists on the stages and before the theater criticism of the Federal Republic . In: Horst Frenz and Hans-Joachim Lang (eds.): North American literature in the German-speaking area since 1945 - contributions to their reception . Winkler Verlag, Munich 1973, ISBN 3-538-07-807-6 , pp. 79-102, here p. 101.