September 13 — October 18, 2000
By Werner Schwab
Translated by Ivo Schneider & Sarah Morrissette
Directed by Frédérique Michel
Production Design and Dramaturgy by Charles A. Duncombe Jr.
Cast: Maureen Byrnes, Katharina Lejona, Cynthia Mance, Eileen O’Connell, Veronica Valentine, Erin Vincent
Backstage West
by Michael Green
In the grimly hilarious vision of Austrian playwright Werner Schwab, mankind starts rotten and has no chance of redemption because life offers nothing but barren mass delusions and pathetic ego-centric fantasies, condemning humanity to wallow in a world filled by sex, violence, and shit, vulnerable to the false promises of Nazism whistling invitingly from the wings. This first (1990) major play hadn’t yet perfected Schwab’s trademark mangling of language that reduces communication to incoherence or lacerating assault, but already vivid is his degraded, hideously cruel and stupid humanity, whose exchanges produce only pain and rage.
In the grimly hilarious vision of Austrian playwright Werner Schwab, mankind starts rotten and has no chance of redemption because life offers nothing but barren mass delusions and pathetic ego-centric fantasies, condemning humanity to wallow in a world filled by sex, violence, and shit, vulnerable to the false promises of Nazism whistling invitingly from the wings. This first (1990) major play hadn’t yet perfected Schwab’s trademark mangling of language that reduces communication to incoherence or lacerating assault, but already vivid is his degraded, hideously cruel and stupid humanity, whose exchanges produce only pain and rage.