A German Life Co-Produced by Adelaide Main Image James Green Festival and the Gordon Frost Generously Supported by Organisation
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26 FEB – 14 MAR 2021 THEATRE / AUSTRALIA A German Life This play is as much about our contemporary Written by Christopher Hampton world as it is about Starring Robyn Nevin Hitler’s Germany. Directed by Neil Armfield “ Neil Armfield 19 Feb - 14 Mar, 2021 Dunstan Playhouse Adelaide Festival Centre “ Duration 1 hr 30 mins, no interval #AdlFest adelaidefestival.com.au A German Life Co-produced by Adelaide Main Image James Green Festival and The Gordon Frost Generously supported by Organisation. Jill Hill & Bob Warner Written by Supported by Christopher Hampton Amnesty International Starring Robyn Nevin Archival video from United Cello States Holocaust Memorial Catherine Finnis Museum, courtesy of Library of Congress. Directed by Neil Armfield Based on the documentary Associate Director film A German Life by Christian Chris Parker Krönes, Olaf Müller, Roland Composer Alan John Schrotthofer and Florian Weigensamer / Blackbox Film Set & Costume Designer & Media Productions Dale Ferguson (www.blackboxfilm.at). Lighting Designer A German Life was first Nigel Levings presented at the Bridge Sound Designer Theatre, London, on 6 Jane Rossetto April, 2019. Producer With thanks to Rachael Kate Hillgrove Azzopardi, Patonga Progress Hall, Torrens Rowing Club and Production Manager Annika Stennert. Lachlan Turner Note Stage Manager The production contains Amelia Mullinar graphic historical footage Rehearsal Stage Manager which may be distressing for Tanya Leach some patrons. A German Life The Gordon Frost National Ticketing Manager Organisation Pty Ltd Susan Knott Ticketing Consultant Chief Executive Officer Jay Lawrence John Frost AM Executive Producer Emeritus Executive Assistant to John Walter van Nieuwkuyk OAM Frost Matthew Cannon The Gordon Frost Organisation Chief Operating Officer is part of the Crossroads Live Shirley McGrath group of companies. Accounts Associate Harry Flitcroft Chairman & CEO Executive Producer Tom McGrath Bernadette Hayes President Executive Producer Dan Miller Suzanne Jones Director Executive Producer David Ian Adrian Storey EVP International Theatre Executive Producer Bob Eady Mitzi Zaphir Associate Producer Bec Windsor Associate Producer Robbert Van der Zwaag Senior Production Associate Shane O’Connor Production Associate Natasha Cohen KEEPING THE ARTS CENTRE STAGE 6401-023 CRICOS 00123M For over 130 years adelaide.edu.au Background A German Life draws on 235 after seeing the film A German pages of transcribed interviews Life, directed by Christian Krönes, with Brunhilde Pomsel. Florian Weigensamer, Roland Schrotthofer, and Olaf S. Müller. Pomsel’s long life intersects with But it was the transcriptions of some of the most extraordinary the full interviews the filmmakers events of the twentieth century. conducted in 2013, when As a young German woman living Brunhilde was 102, that opened during The Great Depression, the door for the theatrical version she took a series of secretarial we see onstage today. jobs. Her employers ranged from persecuted Jewish business In the many pages of interviews, owners to Joseph Goebbels; the Christopher says he saw Brunhilde Nazi Minister for Propaganda Pomsel come “vividly to life”. His and architect of a narrative that translation onto stage of this enabled the most dangerous detailed and ambiguous character political movement in modern was first seen by audiences at the memory. Bridge Theatre in London in 2019. Playwright Christopher Hampton This is its Australian premiere. grew fascinated with her story Perks Private Wealth believes in the legacy of great stories and helping them to reach new heights. Bringing important conversations to life 180 Greenhill Road Telephone [email protected] Parkside SA 5063 (08) 8273 9300 perks.com.au The Life of The Rise and Brunhilde Pomsel Fall of the Third Reich For a more detailed timeline Brunhilde Pomsel of events, please click here is born. 1911 Pomsel's father serves 1914 WWI Begins on the Russian front during WWI. The Armistice is signed He returns unharmed. and fighting ends.Defeat is a She now has four shock for Germany and fuels younger brothers. 1918 rhetoric blaming Jewish and communist “enemies within”. The Pomsels live in the well-off Berlin 1919 The Weimar Constitution district of Südende. Germany’s new democratic Government is overseen by a President and Chancellor, and incorporates a Parliament - called the Reichstag. 1923 Hyperinflation begins when the Government prints money to pay striking workers. Living costs begin to rise rapidly. The Munich Putsch The Nazis attempt a coup. Pomsel leaves Hitler is sent to Landsberg school at 15. 1926 prison for his role, where he She signs a two-year writes Mein Kampf. contract to work at 1927 Gläsinger & Co. Finds work at a Jewish Bookshop. The Great Depression Meets her first boy- 1929 Unemployment in Germany friend Heinz, a journalist increases by 30%. with Nazi connections. 1930 Presidential elections Takes a job with Jewish Hitler is disappointed after lawyer and insurance receiving 36.8% of the vote. agent Dr Goldberg. Paul von Hindenburg is named President with 53%. At 21, Pomsel votes 1932 Reichstag elections for the Nazi Party. 37% of voters support the Meets Wulf Bley, a Nazi Nazis. The Party now holds 230 and WWI pilot. She parliamentary seats. helps write his memoirs. Votes for the Social Hitler appointed Chancellor Democratic Party in the The Vice Chancellor and Reichstag elections. President believe they can control Hitler. Bley and Pomsel work 1933 Reichstag fire at Broadcasting House The Nazis use the burning of after all the Jewish Parliament to pass a decree directors are fired. At banning the Communist Party Bley’s encouragement, and suspending civil liberties. she joins the Nazi Party. The Enabling Act hands Bley leaves and Pomsel legislative power over to the transfers to the Press Nazi cabinet, bypassing the Department, where her Reichstag. Hitler bans all other shorthand abilities are political parties from Germany. celebrated. The Nazis organise a boycott of Jewish businesses, which is violently enforced. Hitler becomes Führer When president von 1934 Hindenburg dies, Hitler merges the roles of Chancellor and President to create the all- powerful role of Führer. The Nuremberg Laws Pomsel falls in love decitizenise Jewish people and with Jewish artist Fritz restrict their freedoms - making Gottfried Kirchbach, it illegal for Aryan and Jewish who illustrated people to marry or have sex. Social Democratic Party posters. 1936 Olympic Games are held in Berlin. Kirchbach moves back Kristallnacht Goebbels incites a to Amsterdam where night of violence against Jewish his wife, children, and people. The following day some other girlfriends live. 30,000 Jewish people are sent 1938 to concentration camps. WWII begins as Germany Begins working at the 1939 invades Poland. Britain Ministry of Propaganda and France declare war on led by Joseph Goebbels. Germany two days later. Pomsel’s Jewish Wannsee Conference and friend Eva Löwenthal is 1942 The Final Solution Hitler deported to Auschwitz. authorises the systematic genocide of the Jewish Pomsel arrives home people. Attendees of the 1942 from a party as bombing Wannsee Conference discuss starts over Berlin. Her 1943 options for its implementation. family is evacuated as their apartment block The Battle of Berlin burns to the ground. Britain’s second major air raid in Berlin causes immense devastation, killing 2,000 people and leaving 175,000 homeless. D-Day June 6, Allied forces land 1944 at Normandy after deceiving German intelligence about the location of the attacks. By late August, Paris is liberated. Attempt to Assasinate Hitler The Ministry of The plot by disaffected Propaganda bunker German military officers, right- is surrendered to wing politicians, police officials, Russian forces. and diplomats fails. Pomsel is in the bunker 1945 Death March from Auschwitz when it is surrendered, SS units kill thousands and is interrogated of prisoners, and brutally and imprisoned evacuate those remaining in Buchenwald on foot. Concentration Camp under the command Allied and Soviet forces of the USSR. liberate a series of concentration camps Soviets and US troops meet up in Central Berlin Hitler commits suicide Soviets capture the Reich Chancellery in Berlin. Germany surrenders. After Pomsel is released Japan surrenders, WWII ends. from Buchenwald. 1950 Director’s Note A year ago, when Robyn but was calling on frenzied Nevin gave me Christopher support from every corner of Hampton’s play drawn from the country to discredit the Brunhilde Pomsel’s interviews electoral process. with a group of Austrian filmmakers in 2016, I thought it We returned to the play on fascinating, and unique. February 1. The security of American democracy And a wonderful role for had been shattered by the Robyn. storming of the Capitol on January 6, and we were In July we began work on it. reminded of just how fragile Over the course of a week we modern democracies are. slowly picked our way through, More and more this play talking about her voice, and seems to be as much about the kind of theatrical space our contemporary world as it we might place her in, and is about Hitler’s Germany. how much we could believe Brunhilde Pomsel died her testimony. And we talked on January 27, 2017 – of how resonant many of the seven days after Trump’s things she described were inauguration. She had turned for us today. Especially in a 106 two weeks earlier. In world dominated by the lies of one of her last interviews Donald Trump. she said, “Hitler was elected democratically,