HowlRound Theatre Commons: While spending a portion of my sabbatical year conducting research in Vienna, I found that I could not escape the ghosts of Austria’s fascist past. Sometimes I anticipated these encounters, at other times they popped up unexpectedly, but they always left me shaken. The most haunting performance I witnessed was Lass uns die Welt vergessen: Volksoper 1938, a play about the events inside a theatre at the time of the Nazi annexation of Austria. As an American attending this production in the spring of 2025, at the time of Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, the play functioned as more than a mere historical lesson. It struck me as an ominous portent.
I always think of Nazi-occupied Germany as being a striking example of reformation and strict policies to “never forget.” I never even knew that Austria welcomed the Nazi regime and participated in the Holocaust willingly (or at least ambivalently, which can be just as dangerous.) I wonder if they advertise the spin the new showing of Lass uns die Welt vergessen: Volksoper 1938 takes. I love the idea of using actual historical clips to further contextualize and educate the audience on the time period. A lot of plays about the rise of the Nazi regime have the same message: how standing by and accepting fate leads directly to the rise of fascism. I wonder if we are creating any new art nowadays that reflects this same theme. What will we look back on as a cautionary tale? It’s always sad to me when such horrific and sad stories become relevant like they are now.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very accurate understanding of what is happening right now. I also think it is notable that the author's opinion is that we should not directly compare the fascism that happened in Austria to the fascism that's happening in the U.S. I agree with this to a point. I disagree just because fascism always has characteristic features and it is not a bad thing to compare those features between regimes. I agree because American fascism has been occurring since before the Nazi’s in Europe. Black people and indigenous people have experienced American fascism since the beginning of the U.S. In fact Hitler said that Jim Crow actually partially inspired the way in which he wanted to do fascism. I think it whitewashes U.S. history to compare the current administration to the Nazis if you don’t also acknowledge that the U.S. has been fascistic and fascist historically.
ReplyDeleteThose who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It’s easy to look at historical atrocities and think to yourself that your country would never have been part of it, that at the end of the day it was a relatively isolated incident that could never happen again. It’s easy to think that the nazi party could not rise in our modern world because too many people would stand against it. As this play shows many people knew that fascism was coming for Austria but didn’t stand up against it. Of course some did but some others thought that it would make their life better and stood for it. And the vast majority of people believed that it would have little or no influence over their life so they simply did nothing. Plays like this are an important reminder that such ambivalence towards fascist regimes is how they gain power. It’s easy to feel that joining the cause against fascism would do little to help because you are only one person but the only way to fight back against fascism is to have many voices speaking against it. Alone we lack the power to create change but if we stand as one we are able to fight against fascism.
ReplyDeleteThough this article brings attention to just how scary of a time we live in, unfortunately I think it’s nowhere near enough. The fact that historians have been ringing alarm bells for years on end, and especially now more than ever, it all begs the question: “at what point do we admit facism?” followed by the more daunting question, “what do we do now?”. I’m glad that this author was able to shed light on our current state of affairs through discussing a theatrical piece, and I think productions similar to “Let Us Forget the World: A Ghost Story” are more relevant than ever to see and put on at this time. Though I believe the theatre industry will always find ways to counteract facism through the art we create, for certain audiences it will never be enough to convince them of how dire our situation is right now. That is a fact that is important to accept, but it shouldn’t stop us from creating and using our voices through the art we create to voice this. That being said, art is meant to unify, so alienation of opinions differing from those who may not take the same message this author did in viewing this play concerning facism, benefits nothing. Getting this message across, and fighting for it, is what matters above all else.
ReplyDeleteThough this article brings attention to just how scary of a time we live in, unfortunately I think it’s nowhere near enough. The fact that historians have been ringing alarm bells for years on end, and especially now more than ever, it all begs the question: “at what point do we admit facism?” followed by the more daunting question, “what do we do now?”. I’m glad that this author was able to shed light on our current state of affairs through discussing a theatrical piece, and I think productions similar to “Let Us Forget the World: A Ghost Story” are more relevant than ever to see and put on at this time. Though I believe the theatre industry will always find ways to counteract facism through the art we create, for certain audiences it will never be enough to convince them of how dire our situation is right now. That is a fact that is important to accept, but it shouldn’t stop us from creating and using our voices through the art we create to voice this. That being said, art is meant to unify, so alienation of opinions differing from those who may not take the same message this author did in viewing this play concerning facism, benefits nothing. Getting this message across, and fighting for it, is what matters above all else. (forgot to write name- apologies!)
ReplyDeleteI don’t even know if I should put my thoughts and feelings about this on the internet right now, given the state of everything. It’s crazy how much better of a place our world would be if anyone was strong enough to take responsibility for their actions. I have my fears… I won’t get into it in my little paragraph here. I think art as a reflection of society is so important; our art will remember the things we try to forget. Whether it’s a reflection of an event, or a feeling, or just some Sunday afternoon, the art we create is something we learn to produce through experiencing the world around us. If it weren’t for lived experience, having little thoughts in our brains we want to reflect, there would not be art. Art is something created by humans for humans, (don’t get me started on AI I’ll freak out) as a way to enforce empathy. Since “art” as a concept is so so large, it’s hard to talk about everything all at once- basically, history is relevant. TRUE history is extremely relevant. As hard as anyone tries to ignore the past, it will show up in artwork, it will remain. I could talk about more… and the relevance of this article to life right here right now in the US… put perhaps that’s for a place other than my comment here.
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