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<p class="MsoHeader" style=""><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> Please
post<!--[endif]--> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center">THE
GRADUATE CENTRE
FOR STUDY OF DRAMA (University of Toronto) </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center">presents
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b
style=""><i style=""><span style="font-size: 22pt;">Mein Kampf<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><span
style="font-size: 11pt;">— A Farce by George Tabo</span>ri<span
style="font-size: 11pt;"> —</span><span style="font-size: 15pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><i
style="">“I can’t stand jokes. I keep forgetting the punch line. But
then, I
must admit I prefer profundities,<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><i
style="">the earnest poise. Life, after all, is a very serious matter.”<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center">(Hitler
in Tabori’s <b style=""><i style="">MEIN
KAMPF</i></b>)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Struggling as a
watercolour
artist on the streets of Vienna, the young Hitler comes to live at a
flophouse
in the city’s seediest quarter. His Jewish roommate helps him sell his
work so
he can eke out a living. Twelve years later, Hitler would write his
infamous
manifesto <i style="">Mein Kampf</i>. Tabori’s play
takes a lesser-known moment in Hitler’s life and, through a fictional
retelling, asks us <i style="">What could have been
if …? Hitler the artist …?</i> The most widely produced of his
two-dozen plays,
George Tabori’s humourous and insightful farce <b style=""><i style="">MEIN
KAMPF</i></b> interrogates
the mysterious role of love in Hitler’s early life, while exploring
humour as a
tool for survival.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">“When I think about
the
German-Jewish love-hate relationship,” says Tabori, “I sometimes see
Laurel and
Hardy, or Cain and Abel. Cain loved Abel, that’s why he murdered him.
Man, say
the sages, wants to kill what he loves most.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="">The
content of every joke is catastrophe.</i> “I hope audiences will
come to be entertained,” says Director Birgit Schreyer, “to broaden
their
cultural and historical horizons, to be shocked and provoked, to laugh,
to
enjoy the subversive power of irony and the grotesque.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="">Second
Toronto Production</i>. “An essential part of this play’s impact
consists of the interplay of what we see on stage and of our historical
knowledge, of what we know was to come. I am particularly happy to have
the
opportunity to stage the play in Toronto.”</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">With Associate
Direction and
Production Dramaturgy by Natalie Corbett, <b style=""><i style="">MEIN
KAMPF</i></b> features the artistic
skills of Set Designer Claudia Kada, Lighting Designer Sharon E. Reid
and
Costume Designer Aleksandra Podbereski. The acting company includes
Paul
Babiak, Jordana Commisso and Daniel Krolik, with Scott Moore as Adolf
Hitler
and Susan Hamann as Frau Death. Caroline Young Stage Manages with
Production
Management by Beth Zdriluk.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;" align="right"><i
style=""><span style=""> </span><span style="">
</span><o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i style="">Every
expression is therapeutic. </i>Actor, director and dramatist
George Tabori (1914- ) was born in Budapest and emigrated to Britain in
1936,
working at the Intelligence Office of the British Army and then for the
BBC
during WWII. He became interested in the theatre when he met Bertolt
Brecht in
the USA. He has worked at German and Vienna theatres since 1971.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="">
</span>MEIN KAMPF</i></b>
runs March 31 - April 10, 2005</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><span style="">
</span>at the Studio Theatre, 4 Glen Morris
Street. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style=""> </span><span
style=""> </span>Wed. to Sat. 8PM. ($15 adults, $10
sen/stu). Sun. 2PM (PWYC).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style="">
</span><span style=""> </span><span style=""> </span>Tickets</b>:
Drama Centre Box Office, 416-978-7986, or at the door.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center">For
interviews and
media queries, contact Robin Whittaker at 416-978-7986</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center">-30-</p>
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