This collection of seventeen articles offers an investigation of some of the most important voices from Austria's theatre world between 1945 and 2001. They are for the most part critical voices engaged in the constantly evolving redefinition of a political state and its private citizens, undermining the status quo and the general complacency. They include both writers, producers and directors, for the written word must take shape on stage and the real debate of drama takes place in a public space. Therefore this volume attempts to include issues of staging and reception where possible. Taken as a whole this volume is intended to show the incredible richness and variety of the theatre scene in Austria.

Despite the massive influx of Hollywood movies and films from other European countries after World War II, Austrian film continued to be hugely popular with Austrian and German audiences. By examining the decisive role that popular cinema played in the turbulent post-war era, this book provides unique insights into the reconstruction of a disrupted society. Through detailed analysis of the stylistic patterns, narratives and major themes of four popular genres of the time, costume film, Heimatfilm, tourist film and comedy, the book explains how popular cinema helped to shape national identity, smoothed conflicted gender relations and relieved the Austrians from the burden of the Nazi past through celebrating the harmonious, charming, musical Austrian man.

The history of postwar German cinema has most often been told as a story of failure, a failure paradoxically epitomized by the remarkable popularity of film throughout the late 1940s and 1950s. Through the analysis of 10 representative films, Hester Baer reassesses this period, looking in particular at how the attempt to 'dismantle the dream factory' of Nazi entertainment cinema resulted in a new cinematic language which developed as a result of the changing audience demographic. In an era when female viewers comprised 70 per cent of cinema audiences a 'women's cinema' emerged, which sought to appeal to female spectators through its genres, star choices, stories and formal conventions. In addition to analyzing the formal language and narrative content of these films, Baer uses a wide array of other sources to reconstruct the original context of their reception, including promotional and publicity materials, film programs, censorship documents, reviews and spreads in fan magazines. This book presents a new take on an essential period, which saw the rebirth of German cinema after its thorough delegitimization under the Nazi regime.

In almost every area of production, German theatre of the past forty years has achieved a level of distinction unique in the international community. This flourishing theatrical culture has encouraged a large number of outstanding actors, directors, and designers as well as video and film artists. The dominant figure throughout these years, however, has remained the director. In this stimulating and informative book, noted theatre historian Marvin Carlson presents an in-depth study of the artistic careers, working methods, and most important productions of ten of the leading directors of this great period of German staging. Beginning with the leaders of the new generation that emerged in the turbulent late 1960s—Peter Stein, Peter Zadek, and Claus Peymann, all still major figures today—Carlson continues with the generation that appeared in the 1980s, particularly after reunification—Frank Castorf, Anna Viebrock, Andrea Breth, and Christoph Marthaler—and concludes with the leading directors to emerge after the turn of the century, Stefan Pucher, Thomas Ostermeier, and Michael Thalheimer. He also provides information not readily available elsewhere in English on many of the leading actors and dramatists as well as the designers whose work, much of it for productions of these directors, has made this last half century a golden age of German scenic design. During the late twentieth century, no country produced so many major theatre directors or placed them so high in national cultural esteem as Germany. Drawing on his years of regular visits to the Theatertreffen in Berlin and other German productions, Carlson will captivate students of theatre and modern German history and culture with his provocative, well-illustrated study of the most productive and innovative theatre tradition in Europe.

Austria, the multicultural crossroad of the European continent, has been the genesis of many artistic concepts. Just as late 19th and early 20th century Austria gave influential modernism to the world in the fields of medicine, urban planning, architecture, design, literature, music, and theater, so its film industry created a significant national cinema that seeded talents and concepts internationally. Nevertheless, the value of Austrian cinema to international film has been long obscured. Austria's important bond with American film is also underappreciated because of the lack of accessible English language scholarship on the early careers of Austro-Hollywood artists and on influential developments in Austrian film history. This first comprehensive English survey of Austrian film introduces more than a century of cinema, following the development of the industry chronologically through the nation's various transformations since 1895. Important industry movements, genres and films are highlighted with sociopolitical, cultural and aesthetic details. An analysis of the economic trends that have influenced Austrian film is also provided. The survey considers the directors, actors, producers, writers, cinematographers, editors, composers and other film artists who have been essential to the development and influence of Austrian cinema. The closing chapter anticipates new faces of the Austrian film industry in the 21st century.

The Holocaust - the systematic attempted destruction of European Jewry and other 'threats' to the Third Reich from 1933 to 1945 - has been portrayed in fiction, film, memoirs, and poetry. Gene Plunka's study will add to this chronicle with an examination of the theatre of the Holocaust. Including thorough critical analyses of more than thirty plays, this book explores the seminal twentieth-century Holocaust dramas from the United States, Europe, and Israel. Biographical information about the playwrights, production histories of the plays, and pertinent historical information are provided, placing the plays in their historical and cultural contexts.

Austrian avant-garde cinema bears a resemblance to materialist and visionary aspects of the American avant-garde, while also manifesting a subversive social critique kindred in spirit to European auteur cinema. This 'third way', staked out by Austrian filmmakers and revealed by this volume, is a unique brand of anti-traditional tradition, equally devoted to rigor and precision as it is to fomenting chaos and liberating energy. It is a counter-universe that uses cinema to penetrate new realms of experience. This book helps us enter its delights and dangers.

Through the great diversity of topics and methodologies the essays in this volume make a seminal contribution to an under-researched field at the intersection of literary and cultural criticism, comparative literature, and theatre as well as translation studies. The essays cover a wide range of texts from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century. From a broad variety of perspectives the exchange between drama and theatre of the Anglophone and the Germanophone worlds and their mutual influence are explored. While there is a focus on the successful or unsuccessful bridging of the cultural gaps, due consideration is given to the nexus between intercultural translation and mise en scène as well as the intricacies of intermedial reshaping. Always placing the analyses within the political and socio-historical contexts the essays make an innovative contribution to the aesthetics of Anglo-German theatrical exchange as well as to European cultural history.

This dissertation examines contemporary responses by Austrian theatre makers from the free theatre sector, that is, those working outside of the state theatre establishment, to the outcome of what came to be known as 'the big lie' on which Austrian national identity was built following liberation from German rule by the Allied forces in 1945. The ensuing problem for the post-war generations of having to claim a past that was buried under the carefully constructed official version of history but mediated through the silence of their parents and grandparents - shaping their (inner) lives - and possibilities for representing such experience through the medium of theatre are core issues explored in this study. The main focus of the dissertation is analysis of a selection of three pieces of theatre produced by two free theatre companies in Austria, Auf der Suche nach Jakob / Searching for Jacob / Szukajac Jakuba, and Pola, both by the Projekttheater Studio based in Vienna, and Speaking Stones: images, voices, fragments - from that which comes after by Theater Asou in Graz, Styria. Apart from contextualization of the central thematic concerns of the selected pieces of theatre within the historical events of 20th century Austria, and discussion of the theoretical framework within which the pieces are analysed, this study also offers a consideration of the phenomenon of the free theatre sector in contemporary Austria as a complement and an alternative to the state theatre sector, its roots and development since the post WWII period through to the early 21st century. Interviews with theatre artists, arts administrators and a Holocaust eye witness are also drawn upon to investigate how free theatre can provide a medium though which memory-work, the subtleties of damage and the inexpressible, and the difficult task of claiming the past can be explored.