GERMANY: THE CONTROVERSIAL HOLLYWOOD LEGEND MARLENE DIETRICH IS THE SUBJECT OF A NEW PLAY "ICH MARLENE"

Record ID: 390186

  • Title: GERMANY: THE CONTROVERSIAL HOLLYWOOD LEGEND MARLENE DIETRICH IS THE SUBJECT OF A NEW PLAY "ICH MARLENE"
  • Date: 8th September 2000
  • Summary: (REUTERS -ACCESS ALL) SV AUDIENCE CLAPPING
  • Embargoed: 23rd September 2000 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: FRANKFURT, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA638XJGHW8J63AEMN8CSTVIFUM
  • Story Text: The original screen icon, Marlene Dietrich's popularity has not waned since her death in 1992. Thousands have queued up to catch a glimpse of her possessions on display at exhibitions and collectors have spent millions at auction houses to claim some of her most treasured belongings.
    Earlier this year, Dietrich was the subject of the film "Marlene" but just in case fans haven't had enough of her, she's been chosen as the theme for a new play which has opened in Frankfurt. "Ich Marlene" (I Marlene) charts the life and times of Germany's most celebrated actress.
    Hot on the heels of the release of the German film "Marlene", earlier this year, the controversial Hollywood legend Marlene Dietrich is the subject of a new play, "Ich Marlene".
    Starring Petra Constanza and directed by Jörg Fallheir the play 'Ich Marlene' at Frankfurt's Komödie theatre charts the life of one of Germany's greatest icons, Marlene Dietrich. The play, which was written by Rainer Lewandowsky and Mathias Christian Kosel takes us through her entire life from her beginnings as an aspiring teenage revue dancer in Berlin, and the heyday of her career as a Hollywood vamp through to her final days as an embittered old woman living alone. As the actress who plays her, Petra Constanza, admits such a time span in the stars lifetime required a good deal of research into the part.
    "Well I have concentrated on this woman for about half a year, day and night. I could say, I have watched her all her films, sometimes in slow motion in order to be able to study all her gesture, looks, every fluttering of the eyelashes, and that of course is immense fun for an actor. And especially since she lived such a long time and her life story which is acted out on the stage starts from her being very young, eighteen or nineteen, to her being ninety. And that of course is fantastic for an actress", she said.
    Despite the fact that Germany is enjoying a Dietrich revival, the play is quick to point out that many of her countrymen despised her for turning her back on Germany during the 1930's and becoming an American citizen, indeed during her final visit to Germany in 1960, there were protests against her on the streets of Berlin.
    "Many worship her, many don't like her at all. The propaganda put out in Hitler's time very often portrayed her as a traitor, because she took out American citizenship. I think this play helps to show an honest picture of her, above all to young people." Ich Marlene is without doubt a play with a political message. Though, while it shows how the German people felt betrayed at Marlene renouncing her German identity, it also stresses that she was very much opposed to the Nazi regime and was determined to snub Hitler to the point of refusing his lucrative film contracts and even performing at GI benefits.
    "And of course, it is also very political and what is shown is that she deliberately took out American citizenship, that she deliberately opted out and wanted nothing at all to do with Hitler. And that she performed in front of soldiers in America. All this is shown in the musical. Actually, I wouldn't even call it a musical. It's difficult to say what it really is. For me it is rather a play with revue numbers, I would say."
    But, as the play finally demonstrates, Marlene like many starsup used and abused by those around her; an old woman alone, with only her memories as company.
    "Well it's a life story of a successful star who with much discipline found her fulfillment in her life in a great career. In the end of the play she says "I've been photographed to death" and she realises what remains is loneliness. Tempi Passati."
    Petra Constanza who plays Marlene was born into a German theatre family but opted to study ballet at an early age.
    After ten years dancing, she returned to the stage and since then she has enjoyed great success in roles such as 'Evita', Sally in 'Cabaret' and Irma in 'Irma la Douce', but it is playing Evita and Marlene which she has enjoyed the most.
    Despite having had a good deal of success on television, she remains loyal to the stage and this loyalty was repaid when she won the 'AZ Star' prize in Munich for her portrayal of the star whilst playing the part in the Bavarian capital.
    In Frankfurt, the play, which premiered on September the 8th, will run until the 19th of November.
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