THE PLAY’S THE THING… DISSENT, DENIAL AND ARTISTIC FREEDOM
ARTS | APRIL 7, 2014 9:51 AM
By Muriel Mirak-Weissbach
Special to the Mirror-Spectator
KONSTANZ, Germany — At one point in Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet,” the
young prince stages a pantomime play, which features a murder scene:
Gonzago is poisoned and the murderer gets his wife. Hamlet’s strategy
is a masterpiece of psychological insight: he knows that his uncle
Claudius, the king, who will be among the audience, will be overcome
by guilt when he witnesses the scene, because he had killed Hamlet’s
father, and then married his widow. Hamlet explains:
“I have heard
That guilty creatures sitting at a play
Have by the very cunning of the scene
Been so struck to the soul that presently
They have proclaim’d their malefactions… ”
And he concludes:
“The play’s the thing
Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.”
Such is the power of theatre. Viewers in the city of Konstanz in
Germany had the chance to witness that power on March 21 at the state
theatre. The play performed that night was a dramatic rendering
of a famous novel about the Armenian Genocide, “The Story of the
Last Thought,” written by German-Jewish prize-winning author Edgar
Hilsenrath. Days before the premiere, members of the local Turkish
community had sent emails to the theatre expressing their outrage
at the project. Three days before the opening, the Turkish Honorary
Consul Serhat Aksen faxed a letter to the theatre protesting the use
of the term “Armenian Genocide” in the play to characterize the events
of 1915. He argued that the term depicts an “evident criminal act”
but that no legal verdict to that effect existed. “In the face of
our full respect for art,” he wrote, according to press reports in
German, “we are of the opinion that theatergoers also have the right
to receive correct information, and in this respect to learn that
the events of 1915 are a theme for legitimate academic debate.”
He went on to demand that his letter be read to the audience or handed
out in printed form to them, and also be posted on the website of
the theatre.
On the evening of the premiere, a group of about 100 protestors came
together to stage a demonstration, waving Turkish flags and raising
posters.
What triggered the protest initially and what the demonstrators
objected to was the poster that had circulated to advertise the event.
It showed the photograph of a corpse on the ground, seen from the shoes
and covered with a cloth. Above it was the red Turkish flag, with a
quote from Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan superimposed,
“No genocide was committed in our history.” The consul and citizens
of Turkish descent considered this an attack; Armenian actress Bea
Ehlers Kerbekian remarked that the poster was in poor taste, and
certainly disrespectful towards the victim and his family.
The theatre’s artistic director, Christoph Nix, moved quickly to
defuse the situation. He visited the Imam of the Mevlana Mosque in
the city, to assure him that no one had intended to offend Muslims or
Islam, and said he would pull the poster as well as read the consul’s
letter prior to the performance. As one commentator noted, in this
way he succeeded in driving a wedge between a hardliner faction
(which stayed away) and a moderate group (which demonstrated only
against the poster). This was important, given a dangerous precedent:
in March 2011 a Social Democratic political candidate of Kurdish and
Alevite background, had been brutally beaten and the aggressor never
identified. She had proposed political initiatives against a well-known
Salafist extremist, considered by the German authorities to be a “hate
preacher.” Nix is also a lawyer who has defended Turkish opposition
figures, a professor of law and the author of a book on political
trials in Turkey — i.e. not an artist who is unaware of political
realities. His action served also to protect his actors and theatre.
As a result, the play did go on, albeit under police protection.
Needless to say, the house was packed. Among those attending were local
politicians, including the city’s mayor, Andreas Osner, responsible
for culture and education, and Peter Friedrich, Baden-Wurttemberg
State Minister for the Bundesrat, Europe and International Affairs,
both from the Social Democratic Party (SPD). On Facebook, Friedrich
praised the performance, extolling the excellence of the “superb
acting achievement and the ability to draw a large arc, using very
simple means, to span cultural characters, political conflicts and
personal destinies.” He went on to present his view that “We cannot
leave the discussion about the murder, systematic elimination and
deportation of hundreds of thousands of Armenians beginning in 1915
to historians alone or to a disposition of punishment according to
international law. What is required is society’s active examination
of history. This is the only way to develop a good and open democratic
culture.” Another State official, Jurgen Walter, lamented the fact that
it has become increasingly difficult in Germany to openly discuss such
issues, and raised the question, “Who should lead these debates for
society then, if even art and culture are no longer allowed to do so?”
The response from the Armenian side was harsher. Father Diradur
Sardaryan, head of the 5,000-member Baden-Wurttemberg Armenian
Community, who had attended the performance, stated that the “fact of
the Ottoman genocide against the Armenians is completely irrefutable
internationally. If Turkey continues to deny this crime to the present
day, that is a sign of ignorance; if it now, however, demands that
history should be falsified also in Germany, then that is simple
madness. What we are experiencing here in Konstanz is an absurd
battle against history and against artistic freedom.” He thanked
Nix for his courage, and said the play was a “sign of hope.” In a
statement issued as part of a joint declaration with the community,
Dr. Tessa Hofmann, genocide researcher and chairwoman of the Working
Group for Recognition, noted that “for forty years” she has witnessed
“how Turkish diplomacy in Germany and other states has made massive
interventions into artistic, scientific and press freedom.” This
occurs, she wrote, by mobilizing “popular rage” in an attempt to
intimidate organizers, sabotage events or use them for denialist
propaganda. She regretted the fact that often organizers compromise
with such pressure.
Both Christoph Nix and Thomas Spiekermann, the dramaturg of the
theatre, reasserted their commitment to defend artistic freedom against
such intrusions. Accordingly, performances of the play will continue
in the next weeks as scheduled. At the same time, they have insisted
on maintaining their theatre’s tradition of openness to dialogue. On
April 13, they will host a round table discussion with leading German,
Turkish and Armenian intellectuals, including Dr.
Raffi Kantian of the German-Armenian Society, and Patrak Estukyan
from Agos.
And, one might ask, what about the author? What does Hilsenrath, whose
novel provided the inspiration for the play, think about all this?
Referring to the honorary consul’s attempt to relativize the genocide,
he was quoted as saying bluntly, “There is no discussion. It was
a genocide.”
Hilsenrath knows whereof he speaks. Born in 1926 in Leipzig, the son
of a German-Jewish merchant, he was forced to flee with his mother
and brothers in 1938 and seek safety with grandparents in Rumania. In
1941 he was deported to a ghetto in Ukraine, but survived. In 1945
Hilsenrath migrated to Palestine where he stayed until 1947, when he
moved to Lyon. In the 1950s he was in New York and in 1975 returned
to Germany, where he now resides in Berlin.
His novel, which has been translated into many languages, including
Armenian, Russian, French, Italian, English and Turkish, tells the
story of the suffering of the Armenians in the form of an oriental
fairy tale. It comes as the last thought of Thovma, the dying son of
Wartan Khatisian, an Armenian from an Anatolian village destroyed by
Turks, who knows nothing of his family history. Then, in accordance
with the oriental tradition of storytelling, a Meddah appears to relate
his past. He reveals in his tale how Thovma was born the son of an
Armenian woman during the deportations. She left him behind in hopes
he would survive. The work has won numerous awards, including the
Prize from the President of the Republic of Armenia and an honorary
doctorate from the State University of Yerevan, which Hilsenrath
received in 2006.
The performance in Konstanz, though dubbed a premiere, was actually
not the first adaptation of the work for the stage. It was performed
in Yerevan in September 2006 and then went on a very successful tour
throughout the country. This was a bilingual production, German and
Armenian. In November 2006, this version by Andreas Jungwirth held its
German premiere in Berlin. A co-production of Bea Ehlers Kerbekian
and Gayane Apinyan, directed by Rolf Krieg and ensemble, and with
a set designed by artist Archi Galentz, the play was presented at
the Theater unterm Dach (Loft Theatre) under police protection. The
Armenian archbishop travelled from Cologne for the opening night. When
the play was to be revived in March 2007, visa problems prevented
the actors from Armenia from coming. Turkish actors were difficult to
recruit given the tense atmosphere. One Turkish actor dropped out and
Recai Hallac, who also worked as a translator for the German Foreign
Ministry, risked his job to play. He was a personal friend of Hrant
Dink, assassinated in January 2007, and he therefore agreed to take
the role. He in fact filled the two parts himself. Author Hilsenrath
attended almost all the performances. In 2009, the play again went on
in Berlin, at the Balhaus Naunynstrasse theatre, this time directed
by film maker Miraz Bezar a Kurd. Bea Ehlers Kerbekian again played
the role of the Meddah storyteller and two Turkish actors participated.
This time, there was no need for police protection; by then, Turkish
intellectuals and artists had decided to refuse the denialist policy
and to speak out about the genocide. In short, to put on this play
has required courage and dedication. In every case, it has had
major impact.
In Shakespeare’s drama, Hamlet has his troupe of actors put on his
play, which he entitled, “The Mousetrap.” The character Lucianus
pours poison into the ear of the sleeping Gonzago, and Hamlet tells
the audience that they will soon see how the murderer will get
his victim’s wife. “The King rises,” Ophelia says in astonishment,
and Claudius, the King, leaves the company in haste, exclaiming,
“Give me some light. Away!” In fact: the play’s the thing.
(Muriel Mirak-Weissbach can be reached at
[email protected])
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From: A. Papazian
http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2014/04/07/the-plays-the-thing-dissent-denial-and-artistic-freedom/#sthash.MJ1hVqon.dpuf