Germany | The Guardian: An actor at a theatre in Germany was at the weekend shouted down, pelted with fruit and subjected to an attempted stage invasion as he delivered a final monologue in character as a far-right activist.
The violent scenes came on Saturday during the German premiere of the Portuguese playwright Tiago Rodrigues’s work Catarina, or the Beauty of Killing Fascists in Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia.
2 comments:
In one of my college classes, I was prompted to discuss Enemy of the People and various versions that had been performed over the years. While the play itself seems to have a pretty straight forward message about mob mentality and media influence. There were various versions of the play that managed to construe this play. The most prevalent example of this, was the version produced by Nazi Germany. You would be shocked by just how effective this sort of propaganda can be, and it wasn't the only example of a show or movie that was adopted by the Nazis for propaganda reasons during the second World War. This behavior continues to reflect the power that messages in art not only have but also continue to have. It's really important that hate is not the center for what art is about. But to continue to have it push out messages of continue peace, and support.
Art is created with the intention of evoking emotion, whether that be good or bad. For this piece, the intention was to invoke a strong, negative emotion; especially given the content that was being discussed. While the strong audience reaction means that the goal was achieved, I think people need to understand that art is a statement, not directly a harmful thing. It is frustrating and concerning that someone would think it okay to attack an actor doing their work. When I did theatre in middle school and especially in high school, there was always a select group of parents that were upset that the shows we did were “too political” and asked “why couldn’t we just do a fun show for the kids”. In reality, all art is political because all art is meant to make a statement. Take Seussical for example. Definitely a very child-friendly show, and one that is performed quite frequently, but still sends a clear message about environmentalism and other things. I think that there should be more focus on how we as an audience respond to the question that the art provokes rather than shooting the messenger.
Post a Comment