"There is no document of civilization that is not at the same time a document of barbarism," wrote Walter Benjamin. Excavating the Benjaminian epoch of Weimar Berlin, F***, We’re Alive!, a radical reconception of Ernst Toller’s play Hoppla, wir leben! by the LUDZ collective, is a leap into the past, an exploration of the barbarism that has always lain just beneath the surface of modern culture. Toller’s incendiary play depicts Berlin between 1919 and 1927—a society marked by sexual promiscuity and drug abuse, as well as Germany's first failed attempts at democracy, following its failed revolution. Erwin Piscator’s original staging of the play, a multimedia spectacle incorporating film, projection, cabaret songs, and erotic dance, scandalized both city and nation. Now receiving its U.S. premiere, Toller and Piscator's thrilling indictment of the politico-military-industrial complex remains frighteningly relevant in today's tumultuous political times. It is only through constant struggle against power, suggest Toller and Piscator, that we truly live.
This performance offers viewers a rare chance to experience the vision of the legendary Piscator, mentor of Brecht and father of epic theater, whose Dramatic Workshop at The New School incubated a generation of the American avant-garde, and of Toller, an expressionist poet, revolutionary socialist, and antiwar activist whose life ended tragically in New York at the outbreak of World War II.
Listen to WSNR The New School Radio's feature on Erwin Piscatore here!Speakers and performers:Zishan Ugurlu, Drew Lichtenberg, Lloyd Huber, Ulrich Lehmann, CultureHub, and guests.
