The Winterstein Theater in Annaberg-Buchholz shows a clear analysis of the year 1937 with the solo piece “A Child of Our Time” – with frightening parallels to the present.
The gas mask still on the curly brown head, the wounded right arm in the black carrying strap, the head just as scarred by the war as the coat, a brown leather suitcase in one hand, the little wooden horse in the other. It is a disturbing image presented to the small audience at the beginning of this theatrical performance. A performance in an unusual setting and on an unusual stage. For the premiere of the play “A Child of Our Time” based on the novel by Ödön von Horváth, the production team of the Eduard von Winterstein Theater in Annaberg-Buchholz once again chose an unusual venue: the former town hall in the Buchholz district.
Director Moritz Gogg wants to “conquer” the city bit by bit, as he says himself. Having started successfully in the Manufactory of Dreams last season, this year we are going to Buchholz and the Tetzel-Passage in Annaberg.
The auditorium is correspondingly small in the sterile white room measuring just a few square meters. An even smaller area marked in gray serves as a stage for actor Benedict Friederich. This closeness creates an intensity that could never be reached on the big stage of the house. A closeness that makes the content of the piece seem even more oppressive. The novel by Ödön von Horváth was written in 1937 and published shortly after the author’s death in 1938. But the frightening parallels to today’s Europe send shivers down your spine again and again.
For the Hungarian (his birthplace Fiume from 1917 is now called Rijeka and is located in Croatia) the background for writing the novel “A Child of Our Time” was the occupation of the Rhineland and the support of Franco in the Spanish Civil War by Adolf Hitler’s troops. Today it is Vladimir Putin who is waging war against Ukraine – but the propaganda of that time bears a frightening resemblance to that of today. There is no talk of war, instead we speak of “cleansing”.
Horváth, who alongside Bertold Brecht is considered the most important socio-critical dramatist in German theater in the first half of the 20th century, wants his play about an unknown soldier to shed light on the early crimes of National Socialism. And he wants to warn that the harbingers of danger are already recognized and that questionable propaganda is not thoughtlessly followed: The first-person narrator, unemployed and dependent on welfare, increases his hatred of his father’s, from his point of view, beautiful youth and to the comfortable life of others. He glorifies war – and volunteers for the military.
In his uniform and with the silver stars on his shoulder straps, which are constantly increasing, he feels “risen from the grave”. His captain becomes an idealized father figure for him. Wounded, he first ended up in a sanatorium, later unfit for military service and returned to his father. The generation gap flares up again. Unemployed again, the realization ripens in him that he has been taken in by a big lie: “Our leaders are just big cheaters.” But the hatred remains and he denies his own guilt, instead losing himself in self-pity. In the search for the young woman he fell in love with as a soldier at the fair, he also becomes a murderer. One night he freezes to death on a bench in a snowstorm.
Director Michael Stacheder wrote the text for the production under the impression of the events in the Ukraine in the Ore Mountains. He only shortened the original, but made no changes. The decision to include the piece in the schedule was a conscious one, even if it was made in January. There were already signs at that time. Nevertheless, the actual invasion of the Russian troops was frightening. It was all the more important for him to bring the story to the emotional level and to pursue the question of why a person becomes seductive. “If there is a chance for theater to respond, then theater should be able and required to respond,” he says.
A great challenge also for Benedict Friederich, who is making his debut in the ensemble of the Eduard-von-Winterstein-Theater. Born in Würzburg in 1998, he studied acting at the Bavarian Academy for Performing Arts in Regensburg from 2018 to 2022 and was immediately able to convince artistic director Moritz Gogg at the audition. He is happy about the trust placed in such a large monologue right at the beginning of his engagement: “It’s an amazing opportunity,” he says. “The piece has so much to offer: to learn and to take away,” he is convinced. Unfortunately, society has still learned so little from history. On the other hand, the task demands a lot of respect from him. After all, he acts 90 minutes without a break on the small stage, always almost up close to the audience and delivers an impressive evening that leaves its mark.
Further performances are planned on November 18th, January 31st and January 21st at the same place. The performances start at 8 p.m. each day. Card phone: 03733 1407131