Last week, I shared the story of Brecht, a master in Theatre who experienced the difficult times from World War 1 to the Cold War. There is another master in German Theatre whose life and works are worth mentioning.

Heiner Muller was born in 1929. At the crossroad of the Cold War, like Brecht, he believed in Communism and therefore chose to live in East Germany. But in 1961, one of his plays irritated the Government and was censored. Worse still, he was banned from the Writers’ Association. After that, his works were frequently censored. As a writer myself, I can fully understand the hard feelings of not having a chance to show his works. It seemed that all his efforts were in vain and he could not communicate with anyone. Interestingly, his plays received high recognition in the West. More interestingly, since he became more and more famous globally, he was sometimes allowed to perform his works in East Germany.

Under the censorship system of the USSR, it’s easier to stage a classic than a new play. From the perspective of the Government, classical plays like Shakespeare and Greek Tragedies were safer since they bore less connection with the current situation. Muller’s most well-known play was ‘Hamletmachine’. At first, Muller wanted to stage ‘Hamlet’, but he rewrote it out of his desire. He said “Germany is Hamlet, never quite knowing which way to go, how to decide, and therefore always making wrong decisions ……. For thirty years Hamlet was a real obsession for me, so I tried to destroy him by writing a short text, ‘Hamletmachine’. German history was another obsession and I tried to destroy this obsession, this whole complex.”

As compared to ‘Hamlet’, ‘Hamletmachine’ is a very short play and known as poetic and open for interpretation. There are a few impressive lines like “I was Hamlet. I stood on the coast and talked with the surf BLABLA, at my back the ruins of Europe.”

This line is thought-provoking. I can easily associate with what Muller experienced in the European history – just right after the end of the disastrous World War 2, he lived under the tyranny of the Communist. To Muller, Europe was only a wasteland of humans’ civilization. Another line is “I’m Good Hamlet/Gi’me (Give me) a cause for grief/At the whole globe for a real sorrow.” Muller witnessed the acceleration of globalization. Seemingly, everyone lived happily within their rich materialistic lives. Even Muller himself was not imprisoned. Thus, is there anything left to complain about?

Muller also wrote poems, some of these were quite witty. Here I’ll share one:

“City Traffic

A woman waiting for green at the intersection

Checks her fingernails

An image from the ad pages

Ten minutes later she will be dead

And appear

Tomorrow in the papers for the first and last time”

At the fall of the Berlin Wall, Muller was invited to give a speech to the people who were excited and happy. Before he went on stage, some young people from East Germany gave him a pamphlet and wanted him to share. Muller didn’t have much time to take a look, but agreed to involve their thoughts in his speech. Those young people were worried about the unemployment and economic situation after the reunification of Germany. As expected, to share those sentiments in the context of a celebration, Muller was booed. However, in the 1990s, these worries became true. I highly admired how he always insisted on his beliefs and forfeited pleasing anyone.

(Pat To Yan, Active in Hong Kong and German Theatre. Playwright, Director, Lecturer. Elected Council Member and the Chairman of the committee of Literary Art of Hong Kong Arts Development Council.)

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