The translators and project coordinators are Dr Manfred
Schewe and Stephen Boyd of the Departments of German and Hispanic Studies, both
within UCC’s School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures.
Hürlimann’s original play, Das Einsiedler Welttheater (The Einsiedeln World Theatre), centres
on individual and collective responses to current economic and ecological
challenges, and proved to be THE theatre event of the year in Switzerland when
it was performed in front of some 66,000 people over a three-month period in
the summer of 2007. It is Hürlimann’s second adaptation (first, in 2000) of one
of 17th-century Spain’s most famous religious dramas, El gran teatro del mundo (The Great
Theatre of the World) by Calderón. It was commissioned by the community of the small Swiss
pilgrimage town of Einsiedeln (canton of Schwyz) which, starting in 1924, and
at regular intervals of approximately 5 years, had established a tradition of
staging a German-language version of Calderón’s play.
In both of his re-writings, Hürlimann preserves Calderón’s
traditional metaphors of the world as stage and life as play, but while
Calderón’s affirms traditional Catholic doctrine, the modern play culminates in
an overwhelming vision of ecological disaster and economic collapse heralded by
the mysterious End Wind, whose appearance punctuates each of the play’s seven
scenes. As the title suggests, it is a work which plays with conventional distinctions
between the universal and the local, different local and national traditions
and time periods, all features that allow it to be classified within the genre
of ‘World Theatre’.
The production, directed by Peadar Donohoe and with music
score by Johnny McCarthy, is a collaboration between the Cyclone Repertory
Company, the Cork School of Music, and UCC.
Funding support has come from the Swiss Embassy, the German
and Austrian Embassies, as well as from the College of Arts Celtic Studies and
Social Sciences, the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and the
Departments of German and Hispanic Studies at UCC.
Performances (Nov 29 – Dec 1) in the Aula Maxima (UCC, Main
Campus) at 7.30 pm. Tickets (€10 Adults; €5 Students and OAPS; €25 Family
Ticket: 2 Adults/2 Children) at the door, or may be reserved and /or collected
from the Department of German, Room 1. 38, O’Rahilly Building, UCC (Tel: 021 4902078; e-mail:
german@ucc.ie).
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