Rainer Werner Fassbider’s play “Garbage, the City and Death,” which was taken off the boards in November after protests by the Jewish community and others that it was anti-Semitic, will be shown shortly for “closed audiences.”
This was announced by Guenther Ruehle, the artistic manager of Frankfurt’s municipally-supported Kammerspiel (little theatre), where it was originally scheduled to premier October 31. Jewish protesters occupied the stage and prevented the performance, and a heated dialogue ensued between them and members of the audience.
The protesters’ contention that the play is anti-Semitic is rooted primarily in the fact that the main protagonist is a heartless–and nameless–real estate speculator referred to only as “the rich Jew.” Ruehle, under pressure from the Jewish community and various political figures, abandoned plans in November to show the play. Now he has announced that a study of legal implications demonstrates that performing it for “closed” audiences–the term was not defined by him–would be in accordance with the laws of the Hesse Federal State. Frankfurt municipal authorities, however, still hold to the belief that such performances of the play are illegal.
Observers in Frankfurt expressed the view that the showing of the play has become almost an obsession for Ruehle, Said one theater critic. “He is prepared to do anything to show this garbage to the public.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
