Tag Archives: Michael Trauffer

THE PINK LIST

★★★★

King’s Head Theatre

THE PINK LIST at the King’s Head Theatre

★★★★

“Michael Trauffer packs an enormous amount into this engaging and perfectly performed show”

The Pink List, from the creators of ‘Fabulett 1933’, explores the treatment of gay men by the German state through the eyes of Karl Hellwig (Micahel Trauffer), a fictional character drawn from compilation of the life experiences of many concentration camp survivors including Karl Gorath, Heinz Dörmer and Josef Kohout. Only a very few courageous and resilient gay victims of the National Socialist regime publicly spoke about their experiences after the war, due to the continued criminality of homosexuality. This play with music, uses their testimony and first-hand accounts to portray events, including incidents in the camps, verdicts of criminal trials for ‘immoral actions’ between consenting adult men and their exclusion from the schemes for compensation of victims of the Nazis.

The pink lists created by the Nazis to allow them to track and target gay men for shipping to the camps, continued to be used to identify and prosecute men in both East & West Germany after the war. It is the context of such a trial, that of Karl, that structures this short piece. Set in 1957 and with the recorded words of the judge (Richard Simon Fridrich), prosecutor and arresting officer triggering Karl’s memories. We see Trauffer using cleverly simple, but effective, changes of costume and minimal props to enact with passion and sparks of humour, Karl’s early crush on a fellow Scout and his finding of ‘his people’ in the cabaret clubs of early 1930s Berlin. The subject of one of the two songs that received a deserved round of applause, ‘Home’. A visceral re-enactment of his punishing existence in the two camps in which Karl is imprisoned is delivered with conviction and appropriate emotion. The chilling image of a Christmas under guard contrasting starkly with that of the family Christmas of his childhood crush.

The second ballad to receive applause was the heartrending ‘Nothing’s Ever Really Over’. It describes Karl’s post-liberation search for his past family & friends ‘walking over the debris of a nightmare’ with the ‘shadows of the SS Guards right here’.

Whilst necessary to give a dramatic context the play, perhaps, dwells too much on the pre-war and wartime story that is well known from other dramas, films and novels. The more interesting and in a sense, more compelling part of the narrative; Karl’s arrest, trial and imprisonment under the infamous Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code, which was not ‘de-nazified’ as other parts of the law were after 1945, the sentence which would not acknowledge the years spent in concentration camps as off-setting time to be served for the 1957 conviction and his search for recognition and recompense for his persecution and victimhood seemed not to be given due time and space through re-enactment. The failure of the state to acknowledge that, and even to continue to use the Nazis’ pink lists to maintain persecution of the victims by imprisonment is a story that needs to be told and awareness of it raised. This extended monologue with songs, delivered with emotion and flashes of humour by its author is a good start in doing that.

The final song, ‘I’m Still Here’, a rousing anthem for all of those, like Karl, who were overlooked and whose persecution was continued by the German state, gives further testimony of the struggles which continue for LGBTQ+ recognition in some parts of the world. The German government only apologised for the persecution of gay men under the Nazi regime and in post war years in 2002, annulled the post war convictions under Paragraph 175 in 2017 and in 2022 announced plans for compensation for gay victims.

The Pink List may only be an hour, but Michael Trauffer packs an enormous amount into this engaging and perfectly performed show.

 


THE PINK LIST at the King’s Head Theatre

Reviewed on 5th August 2024

by Thomson Hall

Photography by Sarah Morrison

 

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

ENG-ER-LAND | ★★★ | July 2024
DIVA: LIVE FROM HELL! | ★★★★ | June 2024
BEATS | ★★★ | April 2024
BREEDING | ★★★★ | March 2024
TURNING THE SCREW | ★★★★ | February 2024
EXHIBITIONISTS | ★★ | January 2024
DIARY OF A GAY DISASTER | ★★★★ | July 2023
THE BLACK CAT | ★★★★★ | March 2023
THE MANNY | ★★★ | January 2023
FAME WHORE | ★★★ | October 2022

THE PINK LIST

THE PINK LIST

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Fabulett 1933

Fabulett 1933

★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

FABULETT 1933 at Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★

 

Fabulett 1933

 

“Trauffer’s performance is full of charisma”

 

Our story begins in 1932 in the fabulous Fabulett cabaret club in Berlin. Fascism is on the rise and queer clubs and culture spaces are under attack. Tonight is the last night of club Fabulett before they close their doors for good at 10pm. Looking after us for the evening is our host, Felix, who appears in leather pants and corset, with black gloves, a cape and a cain. He is accompanied by pianist James Hall who plays the tunes in this camptastic musical variety show. Despite this being the place where the first gender-affirming surgery was performed, a country where queerness had the opportunity to flourish, Felix (Michael Trauffer), and his queerness, is not fully embraced by his family. As he uncovers stories from his past, we learn that he moved to Berlin to live his true self, away from his father who thought that fighting in the war would be the thing to make him finally “man up”.

Trauffer’s performance is full of charisma. Whilst telling us the poignant details of his past, of his broken relationship with his family, he’s also able to find lots of humour and a glittery sense of fun, especially with the music numbers. He stands centre stage, performing a number about wanting his queerness to be ‘visible’, a song he reprises a couple of times throughout the show. The musical numbers are a little static. During one of them, Trauffer mounts a suitcase which he begins to whip as he discovers his kinkier side. But a little more choreography could go a long way to let these numbers really shine.

There’s some letter writing to his mother back home, for which Felix decides to hide his threesomes and instead refer to all the new ‘friends and acquaintances’ he’s made. After the death of his mother, he’s told not to come back home by his dad. But he makes it as a big star in the cabaret, despite the nightmares and flashbacks from his war days creeping into his sleep. There are moments of real poignancy, which nicely contrast with the high-energy musical numbers.

At the end of the night, the Fabulett closes, and we’re left with an important message about the rise of fascism. Just as the Nazis closed down the cabaret clubs in the 1930s, the same thing could happen again. With censorship, threats to freedom of speech, and an increase in LGBTQ+ hate-crime on the rise, it could happen under our noses. And any of us could be at risk of losing our freedoms. The story is a little surface level at times, but nevertheless it’s a very entertaining hour of performance, with a captivating performance from Trauffer.

 

Reviewed 10th August 2022

by Joseph Winer

 

Photography by Edwin Louis

 

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