Just a Slice of Bread: a Play in Ten Scenes With a Single Set

Translators’ Note: Just a Slice of Bread (Nur eine Scheibe Brot) was one of Fassbinder’s earliest efforts, possibly his first stage play. The play was entered in a 1966 Munich playwriting contest and shared third prize out of 60 entries. The twenty-one-year-old playwright and recent acting school graduate attended a reading of the play at the Tangente Gallery in Munich shortly after the contest. Long after his death in 1982, the play was discovered in his mother’s (Liselotte Elder) kitchen cabinet. The first publication and production took place in 1994. The text printed in Theater Heute in its May 1994 issue was missing the first scene. The following translation is based on the complete text provided by Juliane Lorenz, a longtime collaborator and friend of Fassbinder’s. In addition to her, we also wish to give special thanks to Werner von Rosenstiel, Joèle Ingalls, and Georg Kleine.

Characters

Hans Fricke, Director

Hanna, his girlfriend

Vera, an actress

Friedrich von Saalingen, a friend

Max, assistant director

Joe, cameraman

The Producer

Kemper, a journalist

Actor I

Actor II

Actor III

Actor IV (Bender)

Fricke’s Father

Mr. Baumbach

Mrs. Baumbach

(On the stage we see a bed, a few chairs, a small cabinet with a record player, a screen, and now and then a movie camera. Between scenes the lights are merely switched off.)

Scene One

(The making of the film Just a Slice of Bread. The cameraman Joe and the film’s young director, Hans Fricke, who is shooting his first feature length, are lined up next to the camera in deep concentration. Some extras—later to be identified as Actors III and IV—and other members of the crew are also on stage. The focus is drawn to a section of barbed wire fence where we see two Actors with shaved heads and dressed in prisoners’ clothes. First there is a slow camera shot towards Actor I. His full attention is focused on Actor II, who is chewing on a dry piece of bread. Pre-recorded loud chewing noises accompany the scene. Actor I is hungry. He too wants something to eat and goes over to Actor II. The camera swings with him.)

ACTOR I: Where did you get the bread?

ACTOR II: None of your damn business.

ACTOR I: Give me a piece.

ACTOR II: Why?

ACTOR I: Cause I’m hungry.

ACTOR II: We’re all hungry.

(Actor I advances towards Actor II, intimidating him. Actor II is obviously worried about the rest of his bread and braces himself, hand clenched tightly around it. Actor I smacks him in the face, but Actor II doesn’t let go. Actor I turns away, his head hanging low. Hans Fricke interrupts the scene and goes over to Actor I.)

FRICKE: You have to concentrate harder on the chewing noises, Ernst. That’s what they’re there for. Then you have to crave the bread, really fucking need it. And then, after you’ve smacked him and turned around, you have to act as though you’ve regained your humanity through his lack of it.

(The scene is repeated—this time without the recording. Actor I tries to fake hearing the chewing sounds. He rolls his eyes, he can’t do it. Actor I goes over to his colleague again, boxes his ears, and turns away with an expression he believes to be that of humanity itself. Fricke leaves the studio. The assistant follows him. Actors I and II sit on their stools and both grab a coke.)

ACTOR II: You don’t need to hit so hard.

ACTOR I: I thought you’d enjoy it.

ACTOR II: Oh Jesus, that dumb joke.

ACTOR I: That’s what I heard.

(The assistant director comes back holding a sheet of paper in his hand. He wants to make an announcement. The cameraman approaches him.)

JOE: Hey, where’s Fricke?

MAX: I can’t say. He gave me this scrap of paper. He said I should read it...