FEAR AND MISERY OF THE THIRD REICH

photo: Jelena Vilt / Vene Teater archive

theatre

Director: Timofey Kulyabin
Playwright: Roman Dolzhansky
Set Designer: Oleg Golovko
Costume Designer: Vladа Pomirkovannaya
Lighting Designer: Oskars Pauliņš
Musical Arrangement: Timofey Pastukhov
Assistant Directors: Tatiana Kaur, Sergei Plyoskin

by Timofey Kulyabin & Roman Dolzhansky after Brecht

Language:

Duration: 110 min

Tue 10 / Wed 11 Oct 2023, 19:30

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The play "Fear and Misery of the Third Reich" (Furcht und Elend des III Reiches) was written by Bertolt Brecht between 1934 and 1938, while he was in exile in Denmark. It consists of separate scenes that Brecht wrote, according to his own admission, based on what he read in newspapers or heard from eyewitnesses. The first scenes were published in 1936 in the German-language magazine "Das Wort" in Moscow, and the play text was also published in Prague at the same time. The play was first published in Germany in 1948. Almost before our eyes, over the past year, Bertolt Brecht has transformed from a respected classic into perhaps our most relevant author. That is not just because he often wrote about war — about whether, and how, one can remain human when senseless slaughter is underway, and people are killing each other due to the ambitions of power-hungry madmen — but also because he understood precisely the workings of a sick and unfree society. Brecht, one might say, saw through society completely and had NO illusions. In "Fear and Misery of the Third Reich," we see a sober and ruthless analysis of how a totalitarian regime corrupts people, how power manipulates them, and how families are destroyed. How human dignity is humiliated and conquered by fear. How people lose the ability and possibility to resist violence.

One of the most renowned young theater directors in Russia. His productions of "Three Sisters," "Onegin," and "Children of the Sun" were honored with the highest Russian theater award, the Golden Mask. From 2015 to 2022, he led the Novosibirsk Red Torch Theater, which became a significant phenomenon in the country's theatrical scene. In 2022, he left Russia as a protest against the war.

TIMOFEY KULYABIN
theater director

Dolzhansky is a graduate of the theater history department at GITIS in Moscow. He worked as a theater critic for Kommersant newspaper, was a founder of the Territoria Festival, and the artistic director of the NET (New European Theater) Festival. Beginning in 2008, he served as the deputy artistic director of the Theater of Nations, and since 2013 has served on the jury of The International Ibsen Award. He is a laureate of the Cavalier of the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

ROMAN DOLZHANSKY
theater critic, playwright