Die Schutzbefohlenen

Last updated

Die Schutzbefohlenen
Die Schutzbefohlenen 1560-Peralta.jpg
Die Schutzbefohlenen at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 2015
Written by Elfriede Jelinek
Date premiered23 May 2014 (2014-05-23)
Place premiered Mannheim
Original languageGerman
GenrePlay

Die Schutzbefohlenen (translated as "Charges (The Supplicants)" [note 1] ), [1] is a play by Elfriede Jelinek written in 2013. She termed it a Sprachkunstwerk, a language artwork. It deals critically with the politics at the time concerning refugees. The play was first read in Hamburg on 21 September 2013. The first scenic production was in Mannheim on 23 May 2014. The first production in Austria was staged at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 28 March 2015, which was recognised internationally. Later that year, Jelinek expanded the text to reflect the changed political situation.

Contents

Theme

Die Schutzbefohlenen has a complex structure, with two intertwined parts: A modern story of refugees reaching Europe from Africa, and allusions to the ancient play The Suppliants by Aeschylus (which also has its protagonists arrive in Europe as refugees). [2] [note 2] But while in the ancient story asylum is granted to the refugees, in Elfriede Jelinek's play they are denied protection (except for a few "rich" refugees not fleeing from Africa). [2]

Thus its central theme is the conflict between humanitarian ideals as termed in ancient Greek culture, especially tragedy, with contemporary political human rights discourses in a situation when refugees from Africa flee to Europe, crossing the Mediterranean Sea and risking their lives. [1] The play questions whether the European Union's policies at the time were still in line with human rights going back to ancient Greece. [4] Jelinek used the language of the past to unveil the "rule of the powerful arbitrary gods of the economy" (Walten der mächtigen Willkür-Götter der Ökonomie). [2]

History

Die Schutzbefohlenen , Burgtheater 2015 Die Schutzbefohlenen 4233-Michelides.jpg
Die Schutzbefohlenen, Burgtheater 2015

Jelinek wrote the text for Nicolas Stemann's production Kommune der Wahrheit at the Wiener Festwochen 2013, but it was not used there. [5] The Hamburg Thalia Theater was interested in the topic, in order to support a project Lampedusa in Hamburg  [ de ] to support refugees. [6] It led to the original reading of the text at the St Pauli  [ de ] church on 21 September 2013, where 80 refugees had found shelter.

A Dutch premiere followed in a collaboration of Theater der Welt, Holland Festival, [7] and the Thalia Theater. [6] : 24  The first staged production was part of the Theater der Welt festival in Mannheim, directed by Stemann. [1] The Austrian premiere was performed at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 28 March 2015, directed by Michael Thalheimer, [8] with scenic design by Olaf Altmann and costumes designed by Katrin Lea Tag. [9]

The play was later combined with the ancient play by Aeschylus which had inspired Jelinek, and the mixed play premiered at Schauspiel Leipzig  [ de ] on 2 October 2015 [10] and at Maxim Gorki Theater on 13 November 2015. [11]

Incidents

On 14 April 2016, around 40 members of the Identitäre Bewegung Österreich stormed the main lecture hall of the University of Vienna where Die Schutzbefohlenen was performed, spraying fake blood into the audience and throwing leaflets against multiculturalism. After an ensuing brawl in which both refugees (who participated in the play) and members of the audience were attacked, police arrived and managed to apprehend four of the offenders. Eight people were later charged with assault, several more because of the disruption. The mayors of Vienna and other politicians condemned the incident. [12] [13]

Notes

  1. ↑ Both the German and the English titles are an allusion to the Ancient Greek play of a similar name. A more literal translation of the modern German title would be "those entrusted to protection".
  2. ↑ In Aeschylus' play, the Danaïdes flee Egypt for Greece. [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elfriede Jelinek</span> Austrian playwright and novelist

Elfriede Jelinek is an Austrian playwright and novelist. She is one of the most decorated authors to write in German and was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Literature for her "musical flow of voices and counter-voices in novels and plays that, with extraordinary linguistic zeal, reveal the absurdity of society's clichés and their subjugating power". Along with Peter Handke and Botho Strauss, she is considered to be among the most important living playwrights of the German language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thalia Theater (Hamburg)</span> Theatre in Hamburg, Germany

The Thalia Theater is one of the three state-owned theatres in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded in 1843 by Charles Maurice Schwartzenberger and named after the muse Thalia. Today, it is home to one of Germany's most famous ensembles and stages around 9 new plays per season. Current theatre manager is Joachim Lux, who in 2009/10 succeeded Ulrich Khuon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bibiana Beglau</span> German actress

Bibiana Beglau is a German actress.

Nicolas Stemann is a German theatre director. He is best known for directing the 2002 stage production of Hamlet at Schauspiel Hannover, a theatre in Hanover.

Andrea Breth is a stage director. From 1999 to 2019 she was in-house director at the Burgtheater in Vienna and also directed for the Salzburg Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Wuttke</span> German actor and director (born 1962)

Martin Wuttke is a German actor and director who achieved international recognition for his portrayal of Adolf Hitler in the 2009 film Inglourious Basterds.

Das Werk is a play by the Nobel Prize winning Austrian playwright and novelist Elfriede Jelinek.

Einar Schleef (17 January 1944 – 21 July 2001) was a German dramatist, director, set designer, writer, painter, photographer, and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Kušej</span>

Martin Kušej is an Austrian theatre and opera director, and is director of the Burgtheater Vienna. According to German news magazine Focus, Kušej belongs to the ten most important theatre directors who have emerged in the German-speaking world since the millennium. He is considered one of the most important directors working today, acclaimed for his dark and incisive productions.

Radikal jung – Das Festival junger Regisseure is an annual weeklong German theatre festival at the Münchner Volkstheater, Munich. It began in 2005, as a forum and stage for the next generation of directors.

Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis, founded in 1976, is one of the leading theater awards in Germany. It is awarded by an open jury of theater professionals, critics and playwrights who watch a short list of productions during the Stücke festival; the productions are not the full play but a piece, often the first act. The short list is chosen by a jury from plays that were first performed in Germany during the prior season. The winner receives €15,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Finzi</span> Bulgarian-German actor

Samuel Finzi is a Bulgarian-German actor. Since his start in the late 1980s, he has hundreds of film, television, and theatrical credits. Between 1993 and 2011, he received ten acting awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dea Loher</span> German playwright and author (born 1964)

Dea Loher is a German playwright and author.

Michael Simon is a German theatre director, opera director and scenic designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joachim Meyerhoff</span> German actor, director, and writer (born 1967)

Joachim Philipp Maria Meyerhoff is a German actor, director, and writer.

Peter Becker is an Anglo-German actor. He was born in 1979 in Bad Hersfeld to a German father and a British mother and was raised between Germany and the UK. Becker had his first role as a theatre actor at 15 years old at the renowned Bad Hersfelder Festspiele.

Alfred Kirchner is a German actor, theatre director and theatre manager who is based in Berlin. He worked at theatres such as Theater Bremen, Schauspielhaus Bochum, the Burgtheater in Vienna and the Staatliche Schauspielbühnen Berlin, before turning to freelance work. He has staged productions in Europe and North America, including several world premieres of both drama and opera. He directed the premiere of Martin Walser's Ein Kinderspiel in Stuttgart in 1971, the U.S. premiere of Henze's We Come to the River at the Santa Fe Opera in 1984, and the premiere of Hans Zender's Stephen Climax at the Oper Frankfurt in 1986. In 1994, he staged Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival.

Katrin Lea Tag is a German scenic and costume designer for drama and opera, whose works have appeared internationally. In 2020, she was named Scenic Designer of the Year by Opernwelt, for productions such as Barrie Kosky's Salome for the Oper Frankfurt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Thalheimer</span> German theatre director

Michael Thalheimer is a German theatre director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philipp Hochmair</span> Austrian actor

Philipp Hochmair ; born 16 October 1973) is an Austrian theater, film and television actor.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Elfriede Jelinek / Die Schutzbefohlenen / Charges (The Supplicants)" (in German). Rowohlt. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Lücke, Bärbel. "Aischylos, Aufklärung und Asylproteste in Österreich (und anderswo). Zu Elfriede Jelineks Stück Die Schutzbefohlenen". textem.de (in German).
  3. ↑ "Suppliants by Aeschylus". GreekMythology.com. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  4. ↑ Wildermann, Patrick. "Nicolas Stemann eröffnet Theatertreffen: 'Habt ihr einen Schaden?'". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  5. ↑ "Die Schutzbefohlenen" (in German). Thalia Theater (Hamburg). 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  6. 1 2 Deuflhard, Amelie (February 2015). "Nicolas Stemann im Gespräch mit Barbara Burckhardt, Eva Behrendt and Franz Wille: Menschenrechte für alle? Wie leben wir eigentlich? Worauf basiert unser Wohlstand? Und worauf unsere sogenannten Werte? Der Umgang mit Flüchtlingen stellt das demokratische Westeuropa auf die Probe". Theater heute (in German) (2): 13.
  7. ↑ "Die Schutzbefohlenen / Dutch premiere". Holland Festival . Archived from the original on 15 April 2015.
  8. ↑ "Elfriede Jelinek / Die Schutzbefohlenen" (in German). Burgtheater. Archived from the original on 8 March 2015.
  9. ↑ Gindlstrasser, Theresa Luise (28 March 2015). "Aus dem Kreuz gefallen". nachtkritik.de (in German). Retrieved 27 October 2020.
  10. ↑ "Die Schutzflehenden / Die Schutzbefohlenen" (in German). Schauspiel Leipzig. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015.
  11. ↑ "In unserem Namen" (in German). Maxim Gorki Theater . Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  12. ↑ "Audimax: Fahndung nach Rechtsextremen". wien.orf.at (in German). 15 April 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
  13. ↑ "Rechtsextreme stürmen Jelinek-Aufführung in Wien". Die Zeit (in German). 15 April 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.