H. H.

The play opens with a council meeting in Bavaria, at some time in the future. An elected official refuses to allow the new high school to be named after Heinrich Heine, the national poet whose name appears on almost every public institution. Now the two bronze H’s need to be reused, so the official proposes instead to name the school after Heinrich Himmler, who was born in the town. The council cannot reject the proposal, so under the pretext of respecting democratic freedom, they decide to hold a session comparing the writings of the two men in order to make an informed decision. Eventually the council tries to nominate an athlete with the initials H.H., but no decision is made; the name for the school is still undecided. Grumberg's interactive play suggests that when everyone loses interest and becomes indifferent, the only thing left to do is to laugh.

Format: "Interactive game for schoolchildren, students, employees, and others” (see Preface by Jean-Claude Grumberg, ed. 2006).

Cast Size: 5 characters (minimum). The number of participants can be increased to enrich the choral aspect of the collective game.

Character breakdown:

The characters are not named; each protagonist must choose his or her character: president; opponent; abstentionist; yes-man.

Original or Prominent Production:
First performed at the Theatre Ouvert in Paris, 2005. (With Salima Boutebal, Jean-Paul Farré, Olga Grumberg, Joseph Menant and Christope Vandevelde.) Subsequent production: Theatre du Rond Point, Paris, 2011.

Original Source Material: BNF Richelieu- Typescript, 2004. 4-COL-250(301) 2 sets of annotated proofs, 2007. 4-COL-250(302)

Original Language: French

Publisher:

Actes Sud-Papiers, 2007.

Experience(s) Chronicled: Allegoric or Metaphoric Representations | Survivors and Subsequent Generations | Reactions to the Holocaust