Gerhard Roth
Erinnerungen an die Menschheit
Theater / Premiere

Ensemble, Roth, Erinnerungen an die Menschheit, steirischer herbst 1985, photo: Archiv Oper Graz

Gerhard Balluch in Roth, Erinnerungen an die Menschheit, steirischer herbst 1985, photo: Archiv Oper Graz
Dates
27.9.–4.11.1985
Details
Premiere:
27.09.1985
Additional dates:
03.10., 04.10., 11.10., 15.10., 23.10., 29.10., 04.11.1985
Location
Schauspielhaus Graz
Graz
Production specifics
Auftragswerk des steirischen herbst
Weitere Aufführungen: ORF
After 7 years there is a new stage play from Gerhard Roth: 28 scenes, in which the author tries to give a summary of the “inner history of mankind”, beyond every form of historiography that only deals with the history of emperors. The title is explained, so the author, by the aesthetics in the action of writing itself – the recall of something like the childhood of mankind, was the main point. There is no concrete story and this, for Roth, can only be explained by the principle of the aesthetic theory of Adorno: “A whole thing is always wrong”, that is approximately that what is written there.
Especially the fragmentary character of this stage play should represent the truth without falsification. Roth wants that his play is being done gradually in the mind of the person in the audience. With a complex linguistic architecture the scenery is linked. This architecture should hopefully give the impression of the Babylonian linguistic and mental confusion of mankind. Imaginations of the unconscious, insanity and untruth are alternated with childhood dreams and comic actions, different linguistic models, beginning from scientific and imperative language, up to sophistics and hymns, are quoted. Günter Brus has designed a world of pictures that is unified with the text, forming a trendsetting aesthetic general view.
Text: Gerhard Roth
Director: Emil Breisach
Set design: Günter Brus
Costumes: Michaela Mayer
Actors: Petra Fahrnländer, Marianne Kopatz, Ute Radkohl, Tina Rosenfeld, Eva Roth, Elfriede Schloffer, Gerhard Balluch, Josef Bilous, Heinz Brunner, Franz Friedrich, Erik Göller, Alexander Höller, Kurt Hradek, Bernd Jeschek, Walter Kohls, Ernst Prassel, Christian Ruck, Armin J. Schallock, Dietrich Schlederer, Stefan Suske
Musical director: Wolfgang Bozic
Mediathek

Retrospective
Retrospective