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09/29/09
At last: “Garbage, the City and Death” on a German stage
The Theater an der Ruhr will give the first public performance of the play that has been declared scandalous
No other Fassbinder play has been met with the same type of controversy and heated debates since it was written as Garbage, the City and Death. The present endeavor was preceded by a matinee with a public rehearsal and discussions with the Jewish congregation of Duisburg-Mülheim-Oberhausen, who – like its umbrella organization, the Central Council of Jews – protested against the performance.
We quote excerpts from the announcement the German news agency dpa published on September 8, 2009 about the planned staging:
“[...] Roberto Ciulli, the theater’s director, announced vis-à-vis the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Tuesday that the premiere was to be as early as October 1. Ciulli, who directs the piece, will incorporate the play about a Jewish real estate speculator from Frankfurt into an evening with three further works by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. At first, Only a Slice of Bread will be shown, followed by Garbage, the City and Death and finally Blood on a Cat’s Neck will be performed, said Ciulli.
The original premiere of the scandalous play from 1975, scheduled for 1985, did not take place because of acrimonious protests by demonstrators. Another staging, planned at Berlin’s Maxim-Gorki-Theater in 1998, did not materialize either. The world premiere occurred in New York in 1987, the year it was also performed in Tel Aviv. The reason for the protests was supposed anti-Semitic tendencies within the play. This is also what prevented its performance during Fassbinder’s (1945-1982) lifetime. The production planned for Mülheim is hence the first public performance of the piece in Germany.
Ciulli said that the Jewish congregation had been informed about the project. «This is a fundamental examination of the person Fassbinder», he announced with regards to the project’s background. Primarily known as a film director, he wanted to show Fassbinder’s great influence on theater and its language. [...] Fassbinder’s play suffered from being reduced exclusively to the figure of the Jewish real estate speculator. Ciulli argues that Fassbinder did in fact criticize the existence of anti-Semitism in West Germany in the 1970s.
Born in Milan, Ciulli (75) received numerous national and international rewards for his artistic endeavors and his humanist commitment. He was one of the founders of Mülheim’s Theater an der Ruhr, a place for multicultural encounters and one of the most renowned German theaters.“
Performance dates:
FASSBINDER Only a Slice of Bread | Garbage, the City and Death | Blood on a Cat’s Neck
October 01, 2009 7:30PM
October 02, 2009 7:30PM
October 09, 2009 7:30PM
October 10, 2009 7:30PM
October 15, 2009 7:30PM
The program of the Theater an der Ruhr
Photo left: Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Ingrid Caven in SHADOW OF ANGELS, 1975 © RWFF
Photo right: Simone Thoma and Gabriella Weber, 2009 © Andreas Köhring / Theater an der Ruhr
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