The Astronaut is a tender but sad exploration of a relationship between a father and his son. Through a series of monologues offering advice to his son—a silent figure dressed in an astronaut suit—a Czechoslovakian refugee of the 1968 Prague Spring inadvertently traces the consequences of this historical event on his life, values, and personal relationships.
The Astronaut (2023), Germany. Playwright: Lucia Mann. Directed by: Arnon Grunberg, Lucia Mann. Cast: August Zirner.
Running time: 60 min. Language: English.
The performance is followed by a talkback.
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $10. Seats are limited, on first-come, first-served basis. Online registration through Eventbrite is required.
This event is presented by the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.
Accompanying program
The Astronaut, June 8, 12:30 p.m., livestreamed discussion
Join us at 12:30 p.m. for a livestreamed discussion hosted by The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.
Playwright Lucia Mann and Pavla Niklova, Director, Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival. Moderated by Frank Hentschker, executive director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center at The Graduate Center, CUNY.
The event will be streamed on howlround.com (search for ‘live stream today’).
About
LUCIA MANN is a German writer of plays, feature films, TV series, and short stories; she has written two feature-length films that have been aired in several European countries. The daughter of Jewish refugees from Czechoslovakia and Poland, Lucia was born and raised in West Berlin and has also lived in Israel, England, and the Czech Republic. In fall 2023, Lucia will begin a writer-in-residency program at The Ohio State University’s Melton Center for Jewish Studies.
ARNON YASHA YVES GRUNBERG is a Dutch writer of novels, essays, and columns. He grew up in Amsterdam in a Jewish immigrant family and was kicked out of high school at age seventeen. After a very short acting career, he started his own publishing company, Kasimir, in 1990 and wrote several plays. In 1994, he published his first novel, Blue Mondays, for which he received several Dutch prizes, including the Anton Wachter Prize and De Gouden Ezelsoor, awarded to the best-selling literary debut. Since then, he has written sixteen novels, including Silent Extras (1997), Phantom Pain (2000), Tirza (2006), and The Jewish Messiah (2008). In addition to his novels, he has written many essays, columns, poems, screen-plays, and plays. His essays have appeared in international magazines such as The New York Times, Le Monde, Libération, The Times, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Courrier International, Revista Contexto and Süddeutsche Zeitung. In 2022, he received the PC Hooftprijs, a Dutch literary lifetime achievement award, and the Johannes Vermeer prize, the Dutch state prize for the arts.
Cast
AUGUST ZIRNER is an American-Austrian actor and musician who has appeared in over 140 film productions. He is the only child of Austrian emigrants of Jewish descent and remains an American citizen. Since 1973, he has lived in Europe, attending the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna and holding engagements in Hanover and Wiesbaden as well in Vienna at the Burgtheater and the Theater in der Josefstadt. For eight years, he was a member of the ensemble at the Munich Kammerspiele. In 2006, he was awarded the Grimme Prize for the film Wut. Since 2010, he has also appeared as a jazz flutist with various language-music programs. Zirner is married to the actress Katalin Zsigmondy and lives in Prien am Chiemsee in Germany.
ABOUT THE 2023 REHEARSAL FOR TRUTH THEATER FESTIVAL
The 2023 Rehearsal for Truth Theater Festival: Anew is organized by the Vaclav Havel Library Foundation and the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association in partnership with the Polish Cultural Institute New York, GOH Productions, Trap Door Theatre, Centre of Jewish Culture ŠTETL, Jan Mocek, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, Palissimo Company, and Romanian Cultural Institute.
The program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. The festival is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Arts and Theatre Institute in Prague, and Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.