(Honorably invited by Cambrige Scholars Publishing, I wrote a book review on Prof. Uwe’s new book in 2021.)

Prof. Uwe’s Theatrical Historicality and Living Experience: A Review on Heinz-Uwe Haus and Theatre Making in Cyprus and Greece

Paul Tseng

For we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and men. (1 Corinthians 4:9 )

This book presents to the reader a selection of documents and analyses of the activities of more than 40 years by former Berlin stage director Heinz-Uwe Haus in Greek-language theatre. For the first time, all of Haus’s productions and their reception are presented in their aesthetic context—from the legendary Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht (1975) all the way to Ibsen’s The Lady from the Sea (2017), both performances of the Cypriot National Theatre (THOK). And what’s been entirely shown forth, in essence, is Prof. Uwe’s theatrical historicality and living experience.

As Gadamer points out in Truth and Method, “Ideas used by historians, such as power, force, determining tendency, all seek to reveal the essence of historical being, in that they imply that the idea is always represented in history in an incomplete way only. It is not the plans and views of those who act which constitutes the meaning of the process, but it is historical effects which reveals the historical powers.” One of the major historical effects on Prof. Uwe’s theater making is actually Bretcht, who made a great influence on theater in Cyprus and Greece. His plays, aesthetic texts and especially his productions with the Berliner Ensemble not only revolutionized the stage but also remarkably appealed to those intending to change society. His notion of ‘epic theater’ was closely related to the political issues being examined. The approach was familiar to a theater culture defining its roots in drama of the democratic city-state of Ancient Greek.

Second, The Greek origins influenced Prof. Uwe’s thinking about political matters and his political theory remained confined in democratic consciousness. In interpreting ancient Greek drama, it is known that aristocratic and heroic ethos in the distant past turns out to be a cultural memory of the democratic present.
In Greek tragedy, the conceptions of suffering, hubris and moral responsibility co-exist. Suffering played a vital role in ancient Greek theater. In Aristotle’s words, the tragic protagonist is responsible for his own suffering through which social harmony is restored. This then allows for catharsis, a kind of tragic satisfaction, which was felt by the audience, and experienced through purgation of pity and fear.

Byron’s “ By the Rivers of Babylon We sat Down and Wept” can show how historical wounds and impaired memory features the epic of a race, influencing the thinking of theater making.

We sat down and wept by the waters
Of Babel, and thought of the day
When our foe, in the hue of his slaughters,
Made Salem’s high places his prey;
And ye, oh her desolate daughters!
Were scatter’d all weeping away.
…
On the willow that harp his suspended,
Oh Salem! Its sound should be free
And the hour when thy glories were ended
But left me that token of thee:

Third, it is after World War II that theater became an endeavor of international scope and a way of transcultural communication. A succession of ruins, catastrophes in modern Western history, is central to the postmodern historical consciousness. The sharp contrasts of rationality and genocide, of advanced technology and nuclear destruction, of an ideology of progress and praxis of barbarism, have become constitutive paradigms of the postmodern thinking.
The pattern of existence is like a chain of chances. We must boldly confront the contradictions between the intended results and the unintended consequences.

Postmodernism is based on Neitzsche’s proclamation that God is dead, so it indeed opposes Christianity. Christianity states that the Word/logos precedes human situation and then Rema/the living Word can helps humans experience the substance of logos, enjoying the spiritual joy and knowing how to handle and adapt to all kinds of human situations. Furthermore, postmodernism is associated with relativism, that is, knowledge is dependent on one’s perspective. However, Christianity is more often than not founded in the absolute nature of the Word.

We can find that Prof. Uwe’s historical memory creates the fantastic imagination of his theater making. Many years have passed with some uncertain notice, forming the cave of Prof. Uwe’s memory. As shown in William Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey,"

Five years have passed; five summers, with the length
Of five long winters! And again I hear
These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs
With a soft inland murmur.—Once again
….
With some uncertain notice, as might seem
Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,
Or of some Hermit’s cave, where by his fire

The Hermit sits alone.

On the other side of the coin, Prof. Uwe’s living experiences has carved out his theatrical talent, producing his huge amounts of dramatic production. According to Corinthians 4: 16-18, “Wherefore we faint not; but if indeed our outward man is consumed, yet inward is renewed day by day. For our momentary light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory…” The political persecution and temptation, and life suffering has helped form his intelligence and wisdom.

According to Prof. Uwe, the Stasi tried again and again to discredit him. The institution caused severe difficulties to him. One example of intentional disintegration is as follows: “I return from a rehearsal of Baal to my hotel…I turn on the light and a lady is sitting naked in bed. I knew her. I asked her to get dressed, still standing in the door frame, and to go downstairs. That is when a man with a camera rushes past and runs down the stairs. Similar events or rumors were organized again and again by the comrades.”

Compared to the case of Dalai Lama, Dalai Lama’s philosophies were derived from his suffering from environmental, cultural, religious, and political suppressions. His harsh life experiences result in his wisdom as well as his earnest desire to learn and communicate.

Also, Prof. Uwe had his experience of communist totalitarianism. His heart was filled with intense longing for heroic behavior. Prof. Uwe repeatedly takes the reader back to the essential function of theater: to represent the rule of humans over themselves and their social nature. He enables insights into social processes, generating impulses for their change. His art of acting follows the experience, i.e., to master human fate through society.

It should be noted that Prof. Uwe aims for a distinctly aesthetic culture of directing. We are impressed by how he dealt with the contradictions of life in society and sought the development of new ideas.

Prof. Uwe’s life experiences can be echoed by T.S.Eliot’s lines in “Waste Land,”
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starbbergersee
With a shower of rain, we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
In sum, the theatrical histocality and living experiences are characteristic of Prof. Uwe’s theater making in his respectful career.