History, stories and myths in Dea Lohers Olga's Room

Abstract

Over the past few decades, Germany's division and subsequent unification have altered he way the country's history is understood, with Eastern and Western narratives needing to merge into a new master narrative. The different accounts of the life and death of the Jewish-German communist Olga Benario, partner of the Brazilian freedom fighter, Luis Carlos Prestes, serve as a powerful case study for Germany's author Dea Loher. In her theatre play Olga's Room (1994) the empty stage walls are used in such a way as to serve as a screen for history, her stories and myths, before the actors deconstruct these walls themselves by disclosing their own tragic flaws. In the process, the construction mechanisms that lie behind the history and stories are revealed. The audience is thereby pushed into an active reception role, not least when left with the empty space which Olga and the other actors leave one by one. Escapism into a myth is no longer possible; after all, the realisation that violence and general fallibility are profoundly human prevents this folly.