Two plays by contemporary German playwrigths are to get an airing at Hendon. The Middlesex Polytechnic Drama Group at Hendon will be performing a double bill of Peter Handke’s My Foot, My Tutor, and Günter Grass’s Only 10 Minutes to Buffalo on November 29, 30 and December 1 at 8pm.
The Handke play is a piece without words for two performers which portrays the relationship between two people in a narowly defined social, economic and personal environment. A more literal translation of the original German title, Das Mündel will Vormund sein – The Ward Wants to be Warden – gives perhaps the best description of the action.
Handke is as yet little known in England, but he has been described by numerous critics and theatre artists as the most important avant garde dramatist writing today.
The play is produced by Denis Calandra, a Drama lecturer at Hendon, and the sets are designed by Pino Poggi, an Italian sculptor and set designer from Genoa. Assistant producer and designer is Paul Köllner, a student of linguistics and sociology from the University of Regensburg, Bavaria.
Performers are Louse Hobbs (Modern English Studies 3) and Sandra Brockman (Humanities BA 1). The producer said: “The close cooperation of students from Fashion, the Hendon Drama Society and the guest designer from abroad should provide an interesting experience.”
The Günter Grass play is produced by Jim Horsburgh (BA Humanities 2) with assistance from Chris Stanley, a French and Drama lecturer at Hendon. It’s a fantasy play which falls roughly within the absurdist tradition.
The Group have also been working on an original adaptation of Truman Capote’s Grass harp by Andrew Raine (Modern English Studies 1). Performances will take place on December 3, 4 and 5, again in the main hall at Hendon at 8pm. Admission for all plays is 10p if you have it.
Newspaper article, 1973