ABSTRACT

This book is the first study of the prolific German filmmaker, performance artist, and TV host Christoph Schlingensief (1960–2010) that identifies him as a practitioner of realism in the theater and lays out how theatrical realism can offer an aesthetic frame sturdy enough to hold together his experiments across media and genres.

This volume traces Schlingensief’s developing realism through his theater work in conventional theater venues, in less conventional venues, his opera work focusing on the production of Wagner’s Parsifal at Bayreuth, and his art installations on revolving platforms called Animatographs.

This book will be of great interest to scholars of theater, film, and performance art and practitioners.

chapter 1|25 pages

Introduction

Schlingensief and realism

chapter 2|20 pages

Rosebud

Realist (anti)drama

chapter 3|22 pages

Freakstars

Realist (non)acting

chapter 4|21 pages

Hamlet

There's something rotten

chapter 5|19 pages

Please Love Austria

Realist (in)efficiency

chapter 6|25 pages

Parsifal

The German revolution

chapter 7|22 pages

The Animatograph

Realist scenography

chapter 8|20 pages

Epilogue

It takes an Opera Village