Mein Kampf - A Farce by George Tabori Studio Theatre March 31- April 10, 2005

[Luella Massey]

  Please  post

THE GRADUATE CENTRE FOR STUDY OF DRAMA (University of Toronto)

presents

*/Mein Kampf/*

-- A Farce by George Tabori --



/"I can't stand jokes. I keep forgetting the punch line. But then, I
must admit I prefer profundities,/

/the earnest poise. Life, after all, is a very serious matter."/

(Hitler in Tabori's */MEIN KAMPF/*)



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 /Mein
Kampf/. Tabori's play takes a lesser-known moment in Hitler's life and,
through a fictional retelling, asks us /What could have been if ...?
Hitler the artist ...?/ The most widely produced of his two-dozen plays,
George Tabori's humourous and insightful farce */MEIN KAMPF/*
interrogates the mysterious role of love in Hitler's early life, while
exploring humour as a tool for survival.



"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."



/The content of every joke is catastrophe./ "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."



/Second Toronto Production/. "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."



With Associate Direction and Production Dramaturgy by Natalie Corbett,
*/MEIN KAMPF/* 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.

/                                    /

/Every expression is therapeutic. /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.



*/            MEIN KAMPF/* runs March 31 - April 10, 2005

                        at the Studio Theatre, 4 Glen Morris Street.

                                    Wed. to Sat. 8PM. ($15 adults, $10
sen/stu). Sun. 2PM (PWYC).

*                                                Tickets*: Drama Centre
Box Office, 416-978-7986, or at the door.



For interviews and media queries, contact Robin Whittaker at 416-978-7986



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