A unique exploration of a 1943 play adapted by an Australian and a South African production teams in 2017.
A Holocaust Cabaret presents two scripts that were created in 2017 from the same source materials: preserved song lyrics from a performance titled Prince Bettliegend that was created in 1943 in the Terezín (Theresienstadt) Ghetto. The materials were complemented by the popular 1930s jazz melodies to which those lyrics were set, and by fragments of testimony by survivors who performed in or witnessed that production. Lisa Peschel synthesized the existing materials into a rough plot outline, then collaborated with local production teams at the University of Sydney and Stellenbosch University to reimagine the play. A Holocaust Cabaret presents the final scripts alongside a series of essays by her collaborators about the process of their creation and production and an exploration of the original Terezín production.
A Holocaust Cabaret presents two scripts that were created in 2017 from the same source materials: preserved song lyrics from a performance titled Prince Bettliegend that was created in 1943 in the Terezín (Theresienstadt) Ghetto. The materials were complemented by the popular 1930s jazz melodies to which those lyrics were set, and by fragments of testimony by survivors who performed in or witnessed that production. Lisa Peschel synthesized the existing materials into a rough plot outline, then collaborated with local production teams at the University of Sydney and Stellenbosch University to reimagine the play. A Holocaust Cabaret presents the final scripts alongside a series of essays by her collaborators about the process of their creation and production and an exploration of the original Terezín production.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Preface
Prologue
Joseph Toltz and Petrus du Preez
Part I
Introduction to A Holocaust Cabaret: Remaking Theatre from a Jewish Ghetto
Lisa Peschel
‘There must be some way to protect this young man’: Remaking Prince Bettliegend
Ian Maxwell
Student Ethnographers in the Rehearsal Room: Witnessing Prinz Bettliegend
Laura Ginters
Singing Up the Past and Stompin’ with the Prinz: Jaroslav Ježek and the Music of Prinz Bettliegend
Joseph Toltz and Kevin Hunt
Conversation I: Prinz Bettliegend in Australia and Bearing the Gift Forward
Amelda Brand, Ian Maxwell and Lisa Peschel (Edited by Lisa Peschel)
Prinz Bettliegend in the Western Cape, South Africa: Permission to Play
Amelda Brand
Out of the Shadows: Notions of Memory and Remembrance
Leonore Bredekamp
Race, Power … and Clowning: The Stellenbosch Cast Reflects
Amelda Brand and the Stellenbosch cast (Edited by Lisa Peschel)
Conversation II: The Prinz and Pedagogy, Identity and Cultural Appropriation
Amelda Brand, Ian Maxwell and Lisa Peschel (Edited by Lisa Peschel)
Part II
Prince Bettliegend Performance Script: Australia, August 2017
Prinz Bettliegend Performance Script: Western Cape, South Africa, March 2018
Conclusion
Lisa Peschel
Appendix 1: Plot outline and songs
Notes on Contributors
Index
Preface
Prologue
Joseph Toltz and Petrus du Preez
Part I
Introduction to A Holocaust Cabaret: Remaking Theatre from a Jewish Ghetto
Lisa Peschel
‘There must be some way to protect this young man’: Remaking Prince Bettliegend
Ian Maxwell
Student Ethnographers in the Rehearsal Room: Witnessing Prinz Bettliegend
Laura Ginters
Singing Up the Past and Stompin’ with the Prinz: Jaroslav Ježek and the Music of Prinz Bettliegend
Joseph Toltz and Kevin Hunt
Conversation I: Prinz Bettliegend in Australia and Bearing the Gift Forward
Amelda Brand, Ian Maxwell and Lisa Peschel (Edited by Lisa Peschel)
Prinz Bettliegend in the Western Cape, South Africa: Permission to Play
Amelda Brand
Out of the Shadows: Notions of Memory and Remembrance
Leonore Bredekamp
Race, Power … and Clowning: The Stellenbosch Cast Reflects
Amelda Brand and the Stellenbosch cast (Edited by Lisa Peschel)
Conversation II: The Prinz and Pedagogy, Identity and Cultural Appropriation
Amelda Brand, Ian Maxwell and Lisa Peschel (Edited by Lisa Peschel)
Part II
Prince Bettliegend Performance Script: Australia, August 2017
Prinz Bettliegend Performance Script: Western Cape, South Africa, March 2018
Conclusion
Lisa Peschel
Appendix 1: Plot outline and songs
Notes on Contributors
Index