POST-MEMORIES OF THE HOLOCAUST IN CONTEMPORARY AUSTRIAN THEATRE: PROJECTS AGAINST FORGETTING Submitted by Bernadette Joan Cronin, to the University of Exeter as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Drama, October 2009. This dissertation is available for Library use on the understanding that it is a copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this dissertation which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. (Signature) ………………………………………………………….. 1 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines contemporary responses by Austrian theatre makers from the free theatre sector, that is, those working outside of the state theatre establishment, to the outcome of what came to be known as ‘the big lie’ on which Austrian national identity was built following liberation from German rule by the Allied forces in 1945. The ensuing problem for the post-war generations of having to claim a past that was buried under the carefully constructed official version of history but mediated through the silence of their parents and grandparents – shaping their (inner) lives – and possibilities for representing such experience through the medium of theatre are core issues explored in this study. The main focus of the dissertation is analysis of a selection of three pieces of theatre produced by two free theatre companies in Austria, Auf der Suche nach Jakob / Searching for Jacob / Szukajac Jakuba, and Pola, both by the Projekttheater Studio based in Vienna, and Speaking Stones: images, voices, fragments… from that which comes after by Theater Asou in Graz, Styria. Apart from contextualization of the central thematic concerns of the selected pieces of theatre within the historical events of 20th century Austria, and discussion of the theoretical framework within which the pieces are analysed, this study also offers a consideration of the phenomenon of the free theatre sector in contemporary Austria as a complement and an alternative to the state theatre sector, its roots and development since the post WWII period through to the early 21st century. Interviews with theatre artists, arts administrators and a Holocaust eye witness are also drawn upon to investigate how free theatre can provide a medium though which memory-work, the subtleties of damage and the inexpressible, and the difficult task of claiming the past can be explored. 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my supervisor Professor Phillip Zarrilli for his unfailing encouragement and support throughout this project. My sincere thanks also to my panel of assessors, Dr David Roesner and Professor Martin Swales. Other colleagues at Exeter I would like to thank are Gayatri Simons, Christopher McCullough, Peter Hulton and Jon Primrose. A special thanks to all the theatre practitioners and arts administrators in Austria and elsewhere who supported my work: Uschi Litschauer, Klaus Seewald, Eva Brenner, Hagnot Elischka, Maren Rahmann, Sabine Wiesenbauer, Clemens Matzka, Gernot Rieger, Monika Zöhrer, Andrea Dörres, Christian Heuegger, Barbara Stüwe-Eßl, Kaite O’Reilly, Axel Bagatsch, Agnieska Salamon, Hermann and Jakob Schweighofer, Lissa Gärtler, Carolin Vikoler, Anita Raidl. My sincere thanks also to Walter Gluschitsch and Franz Trampusch of Wagna. I would like to thank those who offered valuable advice and assistance: Roy Sellers, Keith Crook, Kerstin Fest and Adam Ledger. I would also like to thank my colleagues at UCC for their support: Franc Chamberlain, Roisin O’Gorman, Ger Fitzgibbon, Manfred Schewe, Deborah Fitzgibbon and Veronica Forde. And finally, my special thanks to those who offered me personal support and encouragement: Graham Allen, Maurice Cronin Jnr., Emily Murphy and Brendan O’Connor. Most of all, I wish to thank my daughters Daniela and Christiane Reicke and my parents Maurice and Ita Cronin for being with me throughout. I dedicate this dissertation to them in deepest love and gratitude. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction………………………………………………………………………...7 Chapter One: Part One: Thematic Context ……………………………………………………….13 Part Two: The Other Theatre……………………………………………………….33 Chapter Two: Theoretical Context…………………………………………………………………79 Chapter Three: A ‘Ghost Building’ within a ‘Host Building’ – Speaking Stones: images, voices, fragments “from that which comes after”….............................................................111 Chapter Four: ‘Traces of the story-teller’ – Auf der Suche nach Jakob, In search of Jacob, Szukajac Jakuba........................................................................................................................161 Chapter Five: Performing the Literary Text / the Literary Text as Performer – Pola......................190 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………….206 Appendices - a selection of interviews .……………………………………………215 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..253 4 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS (IMAGES) AND ACCOMPANYING MATERIAL Images: Fig. 3.1. Entrance to the Roman caves, die Römer Höhlen, of Aflenz…………...127 Fig. 3.2. Bank of the river Sulm, Aflenz………….………………………........…128 Fig. 3.3 Inside the Roman caves …………………………………………….…129 Fig. 3.4. Concentration Camp prisoners before transportation to their deaths…...130 Fig. 3.5. A prisoner beaten to death in the Roman caves ………………………...131 Fig. 3.6. Colour coding for the various categories of prisoner……………….…..133 Fig. 3.7. The Nazis’ death cart – der Totenkarren……………………………......134 Fig.3.8. Image of anonymous woman carved on the wall of the cave…………..135 Fig. 3.9. Photograph of the photograph of the death cart………………………...137 Fig. 3.10. Passageway leading to the performance space in the Roman quarry…..140 Fig. 3.11. The performance space…………………………………………………141 DVDs: Speaking Stones: images, voices, fragments … “ from that which comes after” (Theater Asou, Graz) Auf der Suche nach Jakob / Searching for Jacob / Szukajac Jacuba (Projekt Theater Studio, Vienna) Pola (Projekt Theater Studio, Vienna) 5 INCLUSION OF PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED PAPER: Chapter Four of this dissertation includes material that has been adapted from a previously published article in the journal Contemporary Theatre Review, Volume 18, Issue 2, May 2008, entitled: ‘Post-Memory and the Holocaust: Auf der Suche nach Jakob / Searching for Jacob / Szukajac Jakuba – A Project against Forgetting’ 6 INTRODUCTION Voi che vivete sicuri Nelle vostre tiepide case, Voi che trovate tornando a sera Il cibo caldo e visi amici: Considerate se questo è un uomo Che lavora nel fango Che non conosce pace Che lotta per mezzo pane Che muore per un sí o per un no. Considerate se questa è una donna, Senza capelli e senza nome Senza piú forza di ricordare Vuoti gli occhi e freddo il grembo Come una rana d’inverno. Meditate che questo è stato: Vi commando queste parole. Scolpitele nel vostro cuore Stando in casa andando per via, Coricandovi alzandovi; Ripetetele ai vostri figli. O vi si sfaccia la casa, La malattia vi impedisca, I vostri nati torcano il viso da voi. (Primo Levi, 2005a: 7) The idea for this project grew out of a long-standing interest in post-WWII Austrian Literature, in particular the Todesartenzyklus by Ingeborg Bachmann, which thematises what has come to be known as ‘the big lie’ on which Austrian national and cultural identity was built during the immediate post-war period and then from 1955 following the establishment of the 2nd Austrian Republic. The ‘big lie’ refers, of course, to the idea that Austria was Hitler’s first victim when he marched on Vienna on the 15th of March 1938 and proclaimed the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany to an ecstatic crowd of an estimated 200,000 on Heldenplatz. The after-effects of the victimization myth – a major factor in the suppression of Austria’s war guilt and thus to the inheritance of a confusing silence by the subsequent generations – are still to be 7 felt today in the lives of Austrians, more than six decades since the end of WWII. As the last of the wartime generation die, it becomes ever more urgent to find ways of addressing these matters. In many cases, however, the dead have taken their personal histories with them and the question remains, how, particularly in the absence of the narratives, can the past be reclaimed and problematic identity issues addressed? In 2002, two years after EU sanctions were imposed on Vienna following the formation of a coalition between the ÖVP, the Austrian Peoples Party and the FPÖ, the extreme right-wing Freedom Party, known for its xenophobia, anti-immigration policies, and German nationalist orientation, I witnessed a piece of theatre performed by a free theatre company from Graz, Theater Asou, Speaking Stones – images, fragments from that which comes after (dir. Phillip Zarrilli), the central concern of which was the alienating effects of war and displacement. The sites of signification in the piece were less the language of narratives and stories than that of gesture and silence. Company members explained to me that a key motivation in the making of this piece was to respond through the medium of theatre to the recent alarming political developments in their country, that is the rise in popularity of the Freedom Party. Following this encounter, I conceived of the idea to focus my research project on contemporary theatre made by Austrian free theatre ensembles that seeks to explore theatrically – either obliquely or overtly – what it means to