Peymann­beschimpfung

"If you'd like to make a donation, you can leave it with Mrs. Noack! C.P." With this handwritten note, Claus Peymann, then artistic director of Schauspiel Stuttgart, commented on a letter from Ilse Ensslin—the mother of imprisoned RAF member Gudrun Ensslin—in which she asked for donations to cover dental treatment for RAF prisoners. Peymann pinned the annotated letter to the theatre's public notice board. The resulting scandal made the Staatstheater a lightning rod in the charged atmosphere of the German Autumn. Shortly thereafter, during the RAF’s attack on the German embassy in Stockholm, a weapon was found that had come from the Staatstheater’s own prop department. Although Peymann was proven to have had no involvement, he was subjected to public abuse and threats from Stuttgart residents. He eventually left the city early and went on to become artistic director in Bochum. The theatre collective Rimini Protokoll turned this episode into a radio play, first broadcast in 2007 by Deutschlandfunk Kultur under the title Peymannbeschimpfung (“Insulting Peymann”). The piece takes an analytical look at Stuttgart in the 1970s. Now, from the third tier of the Stuttgart Opera House, with a view over the city, we revisit this moment of theatre and urban history – together, and through sound.