The Theatre of the Holocaust, Volume 1: Four Plays

Introduction

Introduction zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZY The usually quiet unfolding of human history is sometimes interrupted by events of shattering and lasting effect on the lives of whole peoples. In the twentieth century the world has seen more than a few such events. A case could be made, for example, that the exploration of the solar system in the 1960s and 1970s, in a benign way, qualifies as such an event because it forced people to revise the understanding they have of themselves and their relationship to the world around them. Less to be celebrated, but no less influential, was the Great Depression of the 1930s; a still more painful and unsightly mark was left on the world's order and its people by the First World War. During their course and in their aftermath, such events, by causing nations and peoples to rethink the central questions of existence, have been the inspiration for the imaginative literature of every age, as history is retold and re-experienced in song and story, poem and play. Among the events of recent Western history that today reside in our consciousness, none is more disturbing than the Holocaust. More than any other event of our time, the Holocaust has caused entire nations and peoples to revise understandings of themselves by provoking disquieting and continuing inquiries of the most moral kind. It has forced individuals to reassess their knowledge of the human species, a reassessment which has been deepened and intensified by the large body of testimony and witness which those who were personally touched by the Holocaust have produced. Along with this work, which has appeared in remarkable profusion , has come the recent outpouring of political novels, television spectaculars, coffee table picture books, church sermons, university courses, literary essays, theatre pieces, hip journalism, and porno-zyxwvutsrq 3 4 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA THEATRE OF THE HOLOCAUST graphic films on the Holocaust theme, clear proof of how strongly the subject has taken up residence in our contemporary consciousness . This anthology attempts to assess the relationship of the Holocaust to the drama of our time, to describe its character and evaluate its importance. By bringing to the reading public four remarkable plays belonging to what I have called "the Theatre of the Holocaust," I hope to call even greater attention to a body of work which has assumed a notable place in today's theatre.1 Taken together , the four plays represent the scope and breadth of their special genre. They achieve their effects through diverse styles and artistic strategies corresponding to each author's differing aesthetic inclinations and ethical assumptions; but whether taken individually or together, they present a compelling picture which can not and should not be ignored. As a prelude to the plays themselves, it will be helpful to discuss in some detail the historical events to which the plays are a response , and the artistic difficulties inherent in treating those events. Only after placing the plays in an historical and aesthetic context can the nature of their achievement be fully recognized and the ethical conclusions they draw be fairly evaluated. All four plays—Shimon Wincelberg'szyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSR Resort 76, Harold and Edith Lieberman's Throne of Straw, George Tabori's The Cannibals , and Charlotte Delbo's Who Will Carry The Word?—have received professional productions in the United States or Europe, but all deserve the greater recognition which their accessibility in one volume will afford them; gathering them in one place where they can be thematically related and theatrically contrasted will, I believe , enhance their individual reputations and stimulate other stage productions of them—which is the only way these (or any) plays can be fully brought to life. Their rich theatricality and exemplary integrity clearly set them apart from other less perceptive and more exploitative pieces to which they are superficially related 1. This designation excludes the several examples of plays written or performed in the ghettos and concentration camps. INTRODUCTION 5 by theme. In presenting these plays to the reading public, I hope to further stimulate discussion of the great historical, social, aesthetic, and ethical questions which the Holocaust raises. In seeking answers to those questions we place ourselves in the company of an ever-increasing part of our generation which is struggling to come to terms with that awful time, only recently past, which has scarred our present consciousness and caused us to be, for better or worse, forever different from the way we once...