Lothar Trolle: Geschichtsunterricht

Together with Thomas Brasch and Einar Schleef, Lothar Trolle is one of the most important innovators of German-language drama in the generation after Heiner Mü ller. Like Elfriede Jelinek and (from the younger generation) Wolfram Lotz, he is still regarded today as a dramatist whose texts are not written in the service of theatre but rather constantly ask new questions of it and challenge it afresh, taking it to its limits and beyond-to create a theatre of the future. Lothar Trolle celebrates his 80th birthday on 22 January 2024, at which point he will have been working as a freelance writer for over 50 years: as a playwright, storyteller, poet, radio dramatist, and translator. His diverse texts with all their formal variety deserve readers-new readers. They do not conceal their character as work-in-progress but rather make a virtue of it. As edited material, the texts should show traces of the work involved in creating them, an expression of the reality of writing. This may initially entail unwonted effort in reading them. But this effort is most enriching. Lothar Trolle, b. 1944 in Brü cken near Sangerhausen, is a German playwright, storyteller, poet, radio dramatist, and translator, who lives and works in Berlin. Hermes in der Stadt, one of his best-known plays, was staged by Frank Castorf at the Deutsches Theater Berlin in 1992.