The Curve

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Dorst, Tankred (German playwright, storyteller, director, b. Sonneberg, Thuringia, Germany, December 12, 1925-____), “The Curve,”

a __-minute drama in English translated by James L. Rosenberg from Die Kurve, the German original, set below an unmarked curve on a hazardous mountain road in an anonymous wasteland, 1960,

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© 1960 in German by Tankred Dorst;

© 1976 in English adaptation by Henry Beissel;

© 1968 in English adaptation by James L. Rosenberg;

; • in The New Theatre of Europe 3: Four Contemporary Plays from the European Stage, edited by Robert W. Corrigan (1927-____), a Delta Book (New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1968), 309pp., LCCN 62021253, including “Inadmissible Evidence,” by John Osborne; “The Sunday Promenade,” by Lars Forssell; “The Curve,” by Tankred Dorst; “The Laundry,” by David Guerdon;

• also, in Tankred Dorst’s Three Plays, adapted by Henry Beissel (Toronto : Playwrights Co-op, 1976), 104 pp. ISBN 0919834639, LCCN 77362082, 16622, containing “Grand Tirade at the Town-Wall,” “The Curve,” “and “A Trumpet for Nap”;

• script/rights available from source listed in Three Plays.

• Cited in 1/2/3/4 for the Show: A Guide to Small-Cast One-Act Plays, vol 1, (Lanham, Maryland, U.S.A.: The Scarecrow Press, 1995), ISBN 0810829851, 273 pp.

Dramatis Personae

Rudolf (m), __, outcast from society, brother to Anton; Anton (m), __, outcast from society, brother to Rudolf; Secretary (m), __, a puffed-up bureaucrat from the Department of Public Works.

Synopsis

“A road with dangerous curves winds up a rocky mountain. Rudolf and Anton are two brothers, that live as outcasts from society at the base of this rocky mountain. The curvy road is the source of their livelihood, as cars often veer off the road to crash right in front of their house. The fall is so steep, that the crashed travelers are always dead. Rudolf repairs the cars and sells them. Anton finds his fulfillment in writing the sermons and preparing the burials for the victims. After every accident, he sends a letter to the Secretary of Traffic to warn about the danger of the curve. Nothing changes. Twenty four accidents have occurred but with the crash of the twenty fifth car, everything will be different: For the first time ever, there is a survivor. The brothers discover, that the surviving driver is none other than the Secretary of traffic himself.” (Felix Fuchssteiner)—Kurve, Die (2003) - Plot summary, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368830/plotsummary, accessed March 1, 2008.

Another Synopsis

“The play takes place in an anonymous wasteland, below an unmarked curve on a hazardous mountain road. Cars and buses regularly miss the turn and crash to the rocky terrain below. No one ever survives the fall. Dorst’s play opens with a terrible thunderstorm; lightning reveals crosses marking the graves of those who have died. But the next day dawns clear over the huts of two brothers, Anton . . . and Rudolf . . . , who make their meager living from the disasters. Rudolf repairs and sells the wrecked vehicles while Anton writes saccharine obituaries of the deceased, based on the information he finds in the victims’ personal effects. The brothers’ familiar routine of bodywork and burial is upset when a driver (ironically the director of the Department of Public Works) misses the curve but does not die. The play then becomes a clever examination of what happens when government becomes dedicated to making life ‘better’ for its hapless citizens. Dorst covers everything from the way a self-satisfied bureaucracy ignores the needs of the poor to the question of how far empathy will go when one's own survival is at stake. But his main concern is the clash between truth and delusion. All three characters in La Curva are living in private, amoral bubbles, cut off from reality and unwilling to perceive the effect of their actions on society.”—PUERTO RICO HERALD: International Festival of Hispanic Theater Through March 15... Teatro de la Luna, http://www.puertorico-herald.org/issues/2003/vol7n09/IntlFestLuna-en.html, accessed March 1, 2008.

Comment

“Tankred Dorst currently lives and works in Munich. His farces, parables, one-act-plays and adaptations are inspired by the theatre of the absurd and the works of Ionesco, Giraudoux and Beckett. His monumental drama Merlin oder das wüste Land, which was premiered in 1981 in Düsseldorf, has been compared to Goethe's Faust. Some critics see it as the first major drama of the 1980s. In his tribute to Tankred Dorst on the occasion of the conferment of the Georg Büchner Prize in 1990, Georg Hensel remarked, that Dorst's plays all have a direct connection to the present: ‘For 30 years Dorst’s plays have responded to the great transformations. He has always been a companion to the times.’ . . . Conscripted into the German army as a pupil at the age of 17, he was soon captured and incarcerated as a prisoner of war. Until 1947 he remained in British and American hands. By the time he was released from war captivity his birthplace had become part of the Soviet sector of Germany. He met his family in West Germany and completed his schooling. In 1950 he was going to study German literature, art history and theatre in Bamberg and Munich. Together with composer Wilhelm Killmayer he founded the marionette theatre Das kleine Spiel, for which he wrote his first plays. After breaking off his studies, he worked in various capacities in film, radio and publishing houses. His first major plays were performed in 1960 in Lübeck, Mannheim and Heidelberg. From this time on till today his plays have been performed in the whole world. Tankred Dorst’s work has been recognized with many prizes and distinctions, including the Gerhart Hauptmann Prize (1964), Prize of the City of Florence (1970), Literature Prize of the Bayerische Akademie der Künste (1983), Mülheim Playwright's Prize (1989), Georg Büchner Prize (1990), ETA Hoffmann Prize (1996) and the city of Zurich’s Max Frisch Prize (1998). Tankred Dorst [has held] visiting professorships at universities in Germany, Australia and New Zealand.”—Tankred Dorst - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tankred_Dorst, accessed March 1, 2008.

• A Spanish translation was presented at Arlington’s Gunston Arts Center, Arlington, Virginia, U.S.A. (simultaneous translation provided) and at the Instituto de Mexico, Washington, D.C., U.S.A.

• A film version (2003) was cowritten by Tankred Dorst and Katharina Schöde, directed by Felix Fuchssteiner.

Themes

amorality, delusion, thunderstorm, truth.