Franz Xaver Kroetz

Franz Xaver Kroetz (; born 25 February 1946) is a German author, playwright, actor and film director. He achieved great success beginning in the early 1970s. Persistent, Farmyard, and Request Concert, all written in 1971, are some of the works conventionally associated with Kroetz.

Kroetz is part of a generation of playwrights who modified the critical folk-piece, emphasizing in his works of the early 1970s the underside of West Germany's affluence through realistic portrayals of the lives of the poor. He later began writing for television, which led to a wider audience. His more analytical, Brecht-influenced plays were generally not well-received, though Upper Austria (1972) and The Nest (1974) achieved critical and commercial success. Some later works of social realism like Through the Leaves (1976) and Tom Fool (1978) are also highly regarded.

Kroetz's plays have been translated and performed internationally. Simon Stephens argued in 2016, "Kroetz was identifying how poverty can give rise to brutality, to cynicism, despair and fear. His plays are as resonant now as they've ever been." He became a member of the German Communist Party (DKP) in 1972, when it had negligible political influence in West Germany.

He was affiliated with Suhrkamp Verlag until 1974, with his radical politics being problematic for the publisher. Kroetz admitted in a 1978 interview to being a somewhat combative person. His plays in the 1970s portrayed people who had been rendered speechless by their own social misery. He has named Marieluise Fleißer as a major influence on his early writing, Houseworker caused controversy for containing explicit scenes.

His later plays contain less violence and sexuality, and are more influenced by Bertolt Brecht. Das Nest was first produced for television in 1976, and aired in West Germany in 1979. Upper Austria was first broadcast in 1973.

He wrote a libretto based on his play Stallerhof (1971) for an opera of the same name which Gerd Kühr composed in 1987/88. It was premiered at the first Munich Biennale in 1988. The play was staged at the Burgtheater in 2010 by David Bösch.

In her book Franz Xaver Kroetz: The Construction of a Political Aesthetic, Michelle Mattson of the Columbia University summarizes: <blockquote>Franz Xaver Kroetz – banana-cutter, hospital orderly, fledgling actor and, more significantly, Germany's most popular contemporary dramatist of the seventies and early eighties. This study, which situates Kroetz's aesthetics in a political context, focuses on four plays that mark crisis points in his development of a political aesthetic.</blockquote>

Kroetz wrote for the television series Tatort, Spiel mit Karten in 1980 and Wolf im Schafspelz in 2002. He is also known for his role as the gossip columnist 'Baby' Schimmerlos (roughly 'Baby Clueless') in the television series Kir Royal. His income from acting made writing without financial worries possible.

From 1992 to 2005, Kroetz was married to the actress Marie-Theres Relin. They have three children. As of 2011, Kroetz lived in the Chiemgau and on Tenerife. Kroetz has also argued, "A dramatist must be tough on his characters. Sentimentality is a trap, and it's tempting because audiences love sentimental plays." and also with Marsha Norman's night, Mother (1983). Gautam Dasgupta has compared him to David Storey and Rainer W. Fassbinder, and also stated that his plays are "structured around cliches in the manner of Ionesco". Tom Fool has been compared to Harold Pinter's play The Homecoming for its depiction of a decomposing family. Rolf-Peter Carl, in Franz Xaver Kroetz (1978), divides his works into those before 1972, an "experimental" phase (1972–73), and those since 1974.

In a review of Farmyard and Four Plays (which contains Farmyard, Request Concert, Michi's Blood, Men's Business, and the Men's Business revision A Man, A Dictionary), Dasgupta billed the playwright's works as "lyrical, scathing, humane dramas". Frank Rich wrote in a review of Michi's Blood that it is not one of Kroetz's best work, and said the playwright engages in "uncharacteristic point-making, by force-feeding his heroine [...] Beckett-isms". The Washington Post<nowiki/>'s David Richards argued, "Unpleasant as it may be, 'Michi's Blood' is on to something about people deprived of language, purpose and the awareness of their own feelings."

Brecht-influenced works

Cocalis claimed that by 1972 Kroetz had drawn some criticism for being too repetitive or too apolitical. Works like Lienz – Gateway to the Dolomites (1972), Maria Magdalena (1972), Sterntaler (1974), Heimat (1975), and Agnes Bernauer (1976) were neither critically nor commercially successful. In Maria Magdalena Kroetz in her view struggles with his own formal idiom, and the Brechtian elements of Sterntaler and Heimat make them less powerful than previous works, akin to melodrama or soap opera. Critics of Agnes Bernauer found the heroine unconvincing and the socio-economics oversimplified. In a 2001 review of Alexander Gelman's A Man with Connections, about a man who is viewed by his wife as responsible for an industrial accident that harmed their son, Lyn Gardner argued that Kroetz handles a similar scenario better in The Nest. In 2016, however, she said The Nest has didactic impulses and "now looks a little simplistic and old-fashioned" despite a topical environmental message.

Through the Leaves (1976)

Barry V. Daniels lauded Through the Leaves as thematically "far beyond the specific naturalism of Antoine. When the generally middle class, educated audience confronts the essential matter of the play – its profound humanness – the barrier between them and the lower class characters breaks down". Reviewing a 1987 performance of Through the Leaves at the Dallas Theater Center, Jeannie M. Woods praised the play's psychological insight, calling it "a profoundly disturbing play [...] Her Pollyanna attitude seems to flourish on Otto's abuse and on his inability to express his affection. [...] The harsh reality is tempered both by the warmth of Martha and by grotesque comedy." Frank Rich of The New York Times wrote in 1984 that the play "is not pleasant, but it sticks like a splinter in the mind." He said that even certain impediments of the production he had attended (like Downey's English translation being relocated in Queens) did not "mute the jarring strains of [Kroetz's] genuinely disturbing theatrical voice."

In 2003, The Guardians Michael Billington gave a Southwark Playhouse performance four out of five stars and wrote, "What makes Kroetz an exceptional dramatist is that he links behaviour to economics." He also argued, "Without a hint of patronage or condescension, Kroetz shows how both characters are victims of circumstance." Gardner called it "a gripping but gruelling dissection of a relationship that flounders on mismatched desire, conditioned responses and the utter failure of language [...] one of his best plays".

Tom Fool (1978)

Mark Brown praised the playwright as understanding the 'double burden' of class and gender carried by working class women, and added that "arguably his best writing is reserved for Otto's solitary musings on his position [...] The great beauty of Tom Fool is that it manages to address the politics of capitalism without a hint of polemic. Kroetz relies upon the emotional dynamics and powerful poetry that are the hallmark of great theatre". Gardner gave a positive review to a 2007 performance, arguing that Kroetz is able to make mundane events "hypnotic"; she claimed that the majority of the play is "like watching an unstable building sway and fall in agonising slow motion." Tom Fool was described as "superb" in The Herald.

1980s and beyond

According to Dominic Dromgoole, Kroetz was for some "the guiding light of the 1980s. For others, he was the most mind-bogglingly boring playwright history had ever thrown up."

The surrealistic Neither Fish Nor Flesh (1981) was controversial, with half the audience at its Munich premiere leaving by the end of the third act. Hellmuth Karasek praised Bauern sterben (1985) in the same magazine. Discussing the same play, McGowan criticized the city-country dichotomy in which the former is depicted as soulless and the latter is glorified, though he dubbed the play "powerfully and self-consciously theatrical", saying it contains "a series of elemental, powerful images."

Der Drang (The Urge, 1994), an extended version of Lieber Fritz Ich bin das Volk (I Am the People, 1994) garnered mixed responses.

Der stramme Max, premiered in 1980 Bühnen der Stadt Essen, Ruhrfestspiele
Nicht Fisch nicht Fleisch (Neither Fish Nor Flesh), premiered in 1981 Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus
Münchner Kindl (Munich Child), premiered in 1983 Theater k in Schwabinger Bräu München

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Weitere Aussichten Ein Stück für Therese Giehse – urspr. Fernsehspiel – UA Städtische Theater Karl-Marx-Stadt 1975
Reise ins Glück urspr. Hörspiel – UA Theater am Neumarkt Zürich 1976
Gassenkrampf Stück in 7 Zügen – UA Bayerisches Bühnenfest 1976
Herzliche Grüsse aus Grado urspr. Hörspiel Inklusive – UA Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus 1976
Sterntaler Stück in 4 Akten – Musik Peter Zwetkoff – UA Staatstheater Braunschweig 1977
Bilanz urspr. Hörspiel – UA Torturmtheater Sommerhausen 1980
Die Wahl fürs Leben urspr. Hörspiel – UA Theater rechts der Isar München 1980
Gute Besserung urspr. Hörspiel – UA Theater k München 1982
Münchner Kindl Eine Ballade aus Bayern – UA
Heimat Ein Stück in 2 Akten – UA Freiburger Theater 1987
Wer durchs Laub geht Ein Stück für zwei Personen (Zweite Neufassung von Männersache, urspr. Hörspiel) – UA Marburger Schauspiel 1981
Jumbo-Track Ein Libretto – UA Landestheater Tübingen 1983
Furcht und Hoffnung der BRD / in Deutschland Szenen aus dem deutschen Alltag des Jahres 1983/97 – UA Schauspielhaus Bochum & Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus 1984
Bauern sterben Dramatisches Fragment – UA Münchner Kammerspiele 1985
Der Weihnachtstod Ein bayerisches Requiem – UA Münchner Kammerspiele 1986
Der Nusser Stück in 2 Akten nach Ernst Tollers HINKEMANN – UA Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel München 1986
Der Soldat Schauspiel in 17 Szenen – UA Kreisjugendring München 1987
Zeitweh Monolog – UA Theater die Färbe Singen 1988
Oblomow oder der Freund der Leidenschaften Ein Stück nach Motiven aus dem Roman von Iwan A. Gontscharow – Neufassung – UA Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel im Prinzregententheater München 1989
Bauerntheater Komödie – UA Schauspiel Köln 1991
Kalte Bauern Volksstück in 25 Szenen – erste Bearbeitung von LIEBER FRITZ (nicht aufgeführt)
Der Drang (The Urge) Volksstück in 3 Akten – zweite Bearbeitung von LIEBER FRITZ – UA Münchner Kammerspiele 1994
Ich bin das Volk Volkstümliche Szenen aus dem neuen Deutschland – UA Wuppertaler Bühnen 1994
Woyzeck Die Kroetz´sche Fassung – Bearbeitung des Stücks von Georg Büchner – Hamburger Schauspielhaus 1996
Der Dichter als Schwein Eine Komödie – UA Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus 1996
Negerin Stück in einem Akt – bearbeitete und vervollständigte Fassung von "Oppermann" (nicht aufgeführt)
Der verkaufte Grossvater Volksstück – Bearbeitung des Stücks von Anton Hamik – Münchner Volkstheater 1998
Die Eingeborene Stück für großes Kasperltheater – UA Burgtheater Wien im Akademietheater 1999
Das Ende der Paarung Ein deutsches Trauerspiel – UA Berliner Ensemble 2000
Haus Deutschland Eine Farce (nicht aufgeführt)
Die Trauerwütigen Ein Stück (nicht aufgeführt)
Nachtigal Eine Schmierenkomödie (nicht vollendet)
Der Bauer als Millionär Ein Zaubermärchen – Bearbeitung des Stücks von Ferdinand Raimund – UA Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel 2002
Einer gegen alle Hörspiel nach dem Roman von Oskar Maria Graf
Du hast gewackelt Requiem für ein liebes Kind – (auch: Made in Deutschland, nicht aufgeführt)
Tänzerinnen und Drücker – UA Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel 2006

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Translations

In 1976 Michael Roloff translated some of Kroetz's plays into English, namely Stallerhof (Farmyard), Michis Blut (Michi's Blood), Männersache (Men's Business), and Ein Mann ein Wörterbuch (A Man a Dictionary). Roger Downey translated Wunschkonzert (Request Concert), Durch die Blätter (Through the Leaves, the final version of Men's Business), and Das Nest (The Nest). Some of Kroetz's plays have been performed in the United Kingdom, for example, in 2002, Through the Leaves at the Southwark Playhouse, in the United States, for example, in 1982, Michi's Blood in New York, as well as in Australia.

Actor

Trokadero (1981)
Kir Royal (1986, TV series, 6 episodes)
Der Leibwächter (1989, TV film)
' (2002, TV film)
' (2008)
' (2016, TV film)