3 - Treating Woodworm: Wolokolamsker Chaussee IV: Kentauren, 1986

Summary

WHEN WRITING Wolokolamsker Chaussee IV: Kentauren in 1986, Muller found himself once again responding to a historical moment in which democracy stood at the top of the political agenda. After Gorbachev's accession to the post of General Secretary of the CPSU in March 1985, there were renewed hopes within certain sections of the East German public for the introduction of democratizing and liberalizing reforms in the GDR, modeled on glasnost and perestroika in the USSR. Yet while by 1986 the SED leadership had raised no clear opposition to Gorbachev's domestic reforms, there was also no clear indication of a willingness on its part to reform the cultural and political machinery of the GDR. As with Der Lohndrücker in 1956–57 and Der Horatier in 1968, Kentauren shows a distinct concern for democracy and public participation in politics. And much like the earlier texts, in Kentauren Muller attempts to make its audience a democratic collective of sorts. Yet its means of doing so and the form this democracy appears to take differs radically from that presented by Der Lohndrücker and Der Horatier.

Muller composed Kentauren as the fourth part of his Wolokolamsker Chaussee cycle, a series of five texts beginning with Russische Eröffnung (Russian Opening, 1983–84) and rounded off by Der Findling (The Foundling, 1987). Although new plays often waited many years before being premiered, Kentauren made it to the stage relatively quickly. On 29 January 1988 it received its world premiere in two theaters simultaneously, both within the GDR. While Muller incorporated it into his production of Der Lohndrücker at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, Christoph Schroth directed a production of Kentauren and the third part of Wolokolamsker Chaussee, Das Duell (The Duel, 1985–86) at the Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater in Schwerin. The text was also published relatively soon after its composition, featuring in the February edition of Theater der Zeit in 1988, and only one month later in the pages of Theater der Zeit's Western counterpart, Theater heute. As a result, within eighteen months of its composition, it received a potentially very large readership and audience both within and outside the theater and the GDR. Although the relative speed by which it was to reach audiences might indicate otherwise, Kentauren presents an open challenge to the SED's brand of socialism.