Schaubühne Berlin: FIND: A bullet for the Nazi

The family comes together, three generations. Somewhere in the countryside, in the south of Portugal. Cork oaks grow, lots of cork oaks. There is something idyllic about the whole thing. And yet there are the old conflicts and small frictions. That’s what family is like. But the strong connection between the eight – let’s call her all Catarina – is truly undeniable.

“Catarina ea beleza de matar fascistas” (Catarina and the beauty of killing fascists) is the name of the theater evening by the Portuguese director and artistic director of the famous festival in Avignon, Tiago Rodrigues, who can be seen at the Festival Internationale Neue Dramatik at the Schaubühne on Lehniner Platz and left an audibly irritated audience behind.

Catarina Eufémia, we learn in the course of the performance, was a simple farm worker who was killed by henchmen of the Salazar dictatorship in 1954 because of her fight for better working conditions. Since that day, the family we accompany on stage has been united by a legacy. Every year a family member kills a fascist, because of whom an innocent woman had to die. This is justice, this is family duty. Every year every family member becomes a Catarina. Every year a body is buried and a cork tree is planted. More than 70 trees now decorate the grove.

A young Catarina, she belongs to the fourth generation, is supposed to pick up a pistol for the first time this year. She has deceived a member of parliament and is taking him to the country. But – she can’t do it. This is where the conflict of generations begins. This raises the question of individual responsibility. What is family ties? What is antifascism?

Rodrigues draws clear, lively figures. His dialogue comes easily to the players. His great material, which under other circumstances would have been suitable for a grotesque comedy, has the format of a tragedy.

Hesitation and arguing are punished. Those who have killed for the good cause year after year will soon find themselves hit by bullets. The fascist survives. And after two entertaining hours in which we were able to get to know all the Catarinas and positions, a Nazi takes the floor for a barely bearable 25 minutes.

It starts with the call for law and order. The words become sharper, the tone louder, the demands more radical. What we hear will soon only be fascism in its purest form. But there is no Catarina here to save us from this misery. The audience is perplexed. Some walk, some whistle. There is booing, the booing fades away again. There are hecklers again, this time louder. However – the fascist will not remain silent until he has said what he wants to say.

The production asks loudly how to deal with fascists – and it refuses to answer. After all, you can’t use a weapon. Can you do it? But anyone who lets the extreme right have their way will also have to hear what no one wanted to hear anymore. Theater can hardly do much more than ask extremely uncomfortable questions in this compelling way.