Abstract:
This thesis examines theatrical representations of Hitler. At its core, it asks how and why
playwrights continue to represent Hitler on stage. In particular, I question the coordination of
affect and theatrical device in the process of creating drama that represents Hitler. The six
theatrical works that this thesis engages with are categorised by three formal approaches to
representation: Epic Theatre, Comedy and Postdramatic Theatre. As well as handling three
different formal approaches, this thesis also engages with three critical moments of Hitler’s
‘life’: A pre-war Hitler, Hitler during his time in the Führerbunker and decades after Hitler’s
death. I argue that these three approaches to theatre enable a new pathway to accessing
Hitler’s character. I argue that through the six theatrical works, the audience are able to
access a personal response to Hitler rather than a cognitive one. By this, I mean that the
audiences’ experience of Hitler matters in the here and now, rather than as an historic or
intellectual concern. These works do not seek to remind the audience what they may already
know from history. In analysing these six examples of representations of Hitler, I aim to
emphasise the way in which we can balance the prominent tensions associated with the
representation of Hitler, the reduction of Hitler and the Nazis to a commodity and blindness
to contemporary Nazis, with a theatrical affect that seeks to make personal the audience
experience and ask them to confront how they engage with Hitler and contemporary Hitlers.