On March 15, 1938, Hitler announced the annexation (Anschluss) of Austria with a speech delivered at the famous Heldenplatz (Place of the Heroes) in Vienna, acclaimed by nearly 200,000 people. Barely over a year before Second World War, much less for "The Night of Broken Glass" or "Kristallnacht", kick-start of the organized and systematic persecution of European Jews. Therefore, Professor Schuster, Jewish, decides to emigrate from Vienna. Several decades later, he is invited by the Austrian government to return to his homeland. The teacher settles in a flat near Heldenplatz. But soon enough, misfortune takes place: the Professor commits suicide jumping out the window, unable to tolerate the prevailing conditions in Austria. Heldenplatz begins on the funeral of the celebrated professor, and its lead characters are his (few) close acquaintances. Thomas Bernhard stretches this tragedy far enough to reach an almost grotesque note, without turning it into a tragicomedy, but a tragedy and a comedy at the same time. And his conception of the world as a theatrical representation tunes him up with the classics. If cities have consciousness just like people do, Vienna's is located on Heldenplatz, someone once said. If art has consciousness, like people do, Theater’s is in the piece Heldenplatz, we say.

Ficha técnica

Intérpretes
Maricel Alvarez
Pompeyo Audivert
Rita Cortese
Paula Ituriza
Azucen Lavin
Horacio Marassi
Juliana Muras
Tina Serrano
José Ignacio Tambutti

Autor del texto
Thomas Bernhard
Traducción
Miguel Sáenz
Asistencia de dirección
Alejandro González
Asistencia artística
Julieta Potenze
Asistencia de vestuario
María Vidal
Asistencia de escenografía
Daniela Draiye
Edición de video y sonorización
Marcelo Martínez
Música
Marcelo Delgado
Iluminación
Alejandro Le Roux
Vestuario
Mirta Liñeiro
Escenografía
Norberto Laino
Dirección y puesta en escena
Emilio García Wehbi


Sala Casacuberta, Teatro San Martín, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2008.

Fotos Carlos Furman