Erwin Piscator

German director. His real name was Fischer. He was born in Ulm on December 17th. While training as an actor, he was drafted into World War I. After his demobilization, he went to Berlin and founded the Proletarian Theater, an agitprop-style theater. He started his activities at the People's Theater in 1924, staging bold adaptations of classics and political plays that made extensive use of film and other materials. He also worked on the Red Review movement at the same time, but in 1927 he was kicked out of the People's Theater and continued his activities at the Piskator Stage in Nollendorf Square. His political plays, which combined the three elements of politics, narrative, and technique, were produced through the collaborative work of many collaborators, making full use of theater machinery, producing innovative political works such as "I'm Alive," "Rasputin," and "The Adventures of the Soldier Švejk." Brecht also cooperated with his activities, along with Gasbara and Rania, and was influenced by them. However, he went bankrupt financially and continued his activities on a smaller scale, but in 1931 he went to what was then the Soviet Union to shoot a film, and then defected. In 1936 he moved to the United States, where he mainly worked as a theater teacher. After World War II, he returned to the former West Germany, and in 1962 he returned as director of the Free People's Theater, directing works by Hochhuth, Kiphardt, Weiss and others, sparking the momentum for political documentary theater in the 1960s, but he died suddenly on June 9, 1966, in the middle of his career. For him, theater had always been a place to express his political beliefs.

[Tatsuji Iwabuchi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

ドイツの演出家。本名Fischer。12月17日ウルムに生まれる。俳優修行をするうち第一次世界大戦に召集され、復員後ベルリンに出て、アジプロ劇風のプロレタリア劇場を創始した。1924年から民衆劇場で活動を開始、大胆な古典改作や、映画や資料を多用した政治劇を上演、一方「赤いレビュー」の運動も並行して行ったが、27年に民衆劇場を追われ、ノレンドルフ広場のピスカートル舞台で活動を続けた。政治的、叙事的、技術的という三要素を総合した彼の政治演劇は、多くの協力者の共同作業で、劇場機構を駆使した斬新(ざんしん)な政治的作品『どっこい生きている』『ラスプーチン』『兵士シュベイクの冒険』を生み出した。ブレヒトもガスバラ、ラーニアなどとともに彼の活動に協力し、その影響を受けた。しかし経済的に破産し、戦線を縮小して活動を続けたが、31年に映画撮影のため当時のソ連に行き、そのまま亡命。36年にはアメリカに移り、おもに演劇教育に従事した。第二次世界大戦後、旧西ドイツに帰り、62年に自由民衆劇場の監督にカムバック、ホーホフート、キップハルト、ワイスなどの作品を演出し、60年代の政治的な記録演劇の機運を招いたが、活動なかばで66年6月9日急死した。演劇は彼にとって、つねに政治的な信条の表明の場であった。

［岩淵達治］

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