Synopsis
A fictional account of the meeting between the poet and Holocaust survivor, Paul Celan, with the Nazi Philosopher, Martin Heidegger, at Heidegger’s mountain retreat in 1967.

This is a play inspired by the meeting between the poet and Holocaust survivor, Paul Celan with the Nazi, Martin Heidegger, at Heidegger's mountain retreat in 1967. No record was kept of this momentous meeting in the mountains, and the only mention is an obscure poem by Celan, "Todtnauberg", which is the name of Heidegger's place. It troubled Celan that the man he saw as one of the greatest of modern thinkers, so close to his own work, was a Nazi. One cannot even say 'had been a Nazi' because he never said anything that amounted to a renunciation. Late in life, Heidegger became interested in Celan's work. He attended public readings given by the poet, and in 1967 even invited him to his famous Black Forest retreat at Todtnauberg. Celan accepted.

This was a significant move as Celan had developed an intense sensitivity (one might say 'anxiety') toward anti-Semitic tendencies in post-war Europe. When his dedicated publishers re-issued the work of a poet popular in the Nazi years, he left for another, and when German literary authorities exonerated him over plagiarism charges, he regarded it as a humiliation to be even under investigation.

Yet here Celan was meeting a man in his most intimate home, a home in which, it is said, he had once run Nazi indoctrination sessions.

This play will fictionally explore the meeting of these two men. Two men, who completely loathed and despised everything about each others political and social thinking, and yet were inextricably drawn together, connecting through their art and a true respect for each others work.

Writer

John Banville: Man Booker Winner 2005 for his novel The Sea.
He has written over 10 novels including: Kepler : A Novel, 1981, Winner of the Guardian Prize for Fiction, 1981. The Untouchable, Eclipse, Prague Pictures, The Book of Evidence, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize, 1989 and Winner of the Guinness Peat Aviation Award, 1989. John has also written for the stage and film.

Cast

Joss Ackland: White Mischief, Shadowlands, Lethal Weapon II, The Sicilian
Nicholas Farrell: Pearl Harbour, Bloody Sunday, Hamlet, The Jury
Jemma Redgrave: Cold Blood, Like Father Like Son
James Greene: William and Mary, Charles II, The Statement
Gerard Murphy: Batman Begins, Waking the Dead, Waterworld
Michelle Simms

Special thanks to Green Integer Books, Los Angeles, for granting permission for use of the title poem.