A German theatre audience were \u201ctoo stupid\u201d to distinguish between fiction and reality after an actor was physically attacked for delivering far-right lines during a play, a critic has claimed.<\/p>\n
In a review published by nachtkritik.de following the German premiere of Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists on Saturday, critic Martin Krumbholz said the audience revealed a \u201cmind-numbing self-righteousness\u201d during the performance at Schauspielhaus Bochum.<\/p>\n
Krumbholz \u2013 a critic of US Vice President JD Vance, Germany\u2019s rightwing AfD Party, and other rightwing populists, describing their views as \u201cnonsense\u201d\u00a0 \u2013 was nonetheless scathing in his reaction to the audience\u2019s conduct on the night.<\/p>\n
\u201cParts of Bochum\u2019s audience, which one would almost have considered one of the most theatre-savvy in the country, are apparently too stupid, it must be said bluntly, to distinguish between fiction and reality,\u201d Krumbholz said, describing them as \u201ca milieu that considers its own opinion beyond reproach\u201d.<\/p>\n
The incident occurred during the final 15 minutes of the play when actor Ole Lagerpusch, portraying a kidnapped far-right politician, delivered an extended far-right monologue in-character.<\/p>\n
Audience members reportedly whistled, heckled, and threw an orange at the actor before two men stormed the stage and attempted to forcibly remove him.<\/p>\n
Krumbholz described the scene as \u201cunbearable,\u201d noting that the attackers became violent and \u201cwould go at his throat\u201d if not for the actor\u2019s perseverance.<\/p>\n
\u201cOle Lagerpusch delivered his lecture not in a Hitler-like or H\u00f6cke-like manner, foaming at the mouth,\u201d he said, noting that the actor spoke gently and in a soft-spoken manner.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the end, this actually made everything worse. People believed they were cleverly exposing covert content and became angry.\u201d<\/p>\n
The critic further remarked on the \u201cembarrassment\u201d of the theatre having to explain to the crowd that the performance was a work of fictional storytelling and not a political rally.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Schauspielhaus (the theatre company) will probably precede the second performance with a trigger warning,\u201d Krumbholz added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems indispensable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The play, written by Tiago Rodrigues and directed by Mateja Kole\u017enik, depicts a Portuguese family with a 70-year tradition of kidnapping and executing fascists to avenge the 1954 murder of an agricultural worker.<\/p>\n
The plot focuses on a younger family member who begins to question \u201cwhether violence can ever be a legitimate means of defending freedom and democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the confrontation, security measures have been increased for all future performances of the production in North Rhine-Westphalia.<\/p>\n
The director of the play noted that while the actor managed to finish his final line, he was left \u201ctraumatised\u201d by the evening\u2019s events.<\/p>\n
The production was originally invited to the 2023 Theatertreffen and is intended to explore themes of law, justice, and the rise of the New Right in a near-future setting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A German theatre audience were \u201ctoo stupid\u201d to distinguish between fiction and reality after an actor was physically…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19555,143804,14258,93,143805,61,60,50623],"class_list":{"0":"post-305073","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-antifa","9":"tag-antifascist","10":"tag-ben-scallan","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-german","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-play"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}