Theatre History Commons^™

Laughter At Auschwitz: George Tabori’S “Theater Der Peinlichkeit” And “Vergangenheitsbewältigung” In Post-War Germany, Leonie F. Bell

Senior Projects Spring 2012

For his premiere of The Cannibals at the Berliner Schiller Theater in December of 1969, George Tabori had an escape car waiting just in case the German audience reacted poorly to his play. Not only was he bringing the first Holocaust play set at a concentration camp to the German stage, but it was extremely comedic in nature. Tabori’s Holocaust play was funny. This had never been done before, especially not by a Hungarian Jew who had lost most of his family in the Holocaust. No one knew how the German audience, especially the non-Jewish audience, would react. Tabori wanted …