BERLIN: One of Germany’s most renowned drama companies, founded by the late playwright Bertolt Brecht, received notice yesterday that its contract to perform at a Berlin theatre has been cancelled after nearly 60 years, its lawyer said.
The Berliner Ensemble, established by Brecht and his wife Helen Weigel in 1949, has performed at its current home, the riverside Schiffbauerdamm Theatre, since 1954.
But the owner of the theatre, German dramatist Rolf Hochhuth, terminated the city government’s rental contract under which the troupe uses the stage, the Ensemble’s attorney Peter Raue said in a statement mailed to AFP.
Hochhuth cited a litany of complaints in a 17-page cancellation letter, led by his claim that the Ensemble’s chief Claus Peymann failed to uphold an agreement to regularly perform one of his plays.
The piece in question, 1963’s “The Deputy”, argued that Pope Pius XII failed to take action to stop the Holocaust.
Raue said that counter to assertions by Hochhuth, he has no “legal claim” to having the play staged by the Ensemble.
“A lack of audience interest will keep it from returning to the schedule,” Raue said.
AFP
