State of the Art: Alternative Theater in the GDR

Abstract

History and historical figures have always been legitimate topics for the GDR theater. Since the 1980s, GDR dramatists have begun to draw from history and myth as subjects for their plays with new perspectives. They now represent the Nazi past without the fear and trepidation of their colleagues in the West; and they bring the rehabilitated Pruss ian past to life with surprising canniness and irreverence (Claus Hammel's Die Preussen kammen [The Prussians are Coming]). This type of work demonstrates a sometimes laudable historical, social, and political consciousness while keeping within the expressed purpose of GDR theater — to edify each member of the audience and produce a better citizen.