Notes on Theatre in West Germany

Any report on Olympic Theatre would be incomplete without mention of the tremendous amount of theatre activity generated throughout West Germany by the occasion of the Games. For the most part, this activity—some of it officially connected with the athletic events through a huge program called “Olympic Summer”—involved conventional theatre fare, ranging from productions of Brecht's Mother Courage, Büchner's Danton's Death, Wedekind's The Love Potion, Hochhuth's The Midwife, to Walcott's The Dream on Monkey Mountain (performed by the Negro Ensemble Company), the Chinese shadow play San mei hua pan ying, Genet's The Balcony, and Brook's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Although every major German city had a full Summer production schedule, most of the abovementioned plays were staged in or near Munich, Berlin, Augsburg, and Kiel. The purpose of this piece, however, is not to survey all the theatre activity that took place in West Germany this past Summer, but to report in brief note form on some of the more interesting information I gathered on productions, playwrights and directors during the “Olympic Summer.”

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