In this scene from Trevor Griffith's play 'Comedians', Eddie Waters explains how he came to understand that the horrors of the Nazi concentration / labour / extermination camp system were in reality nothing more than consequence of the Nazis extending the logic of the prejudice and hostility to 'others' that is an everyday part of 'normal' human experience.
It is clear that when writing this scene Griffiths drew on the work of Primo Levi, an Italian /Jewish chemist who survived Auschwitz. Griffiths adopted the following two phrases from Levi's 1947 book 'If this is a man', also known as 'Survival in Auschwitz' (Levi, 1993, p. 9):
"Many people - many nations - can find themselves holding, more or less wittingly, that 'every stranger is an enemy'. For the most part this conviction lies deep down like some latent infection; it betrays itself only in random, disconnected acts and does not lie at the base of a system of reason. But when this does come about, when the un-spoken dogma becomes the major premise in a syllogism, then, at the end of the chain, there is the Lager. Here is the product of a conception of the world carried rigorously to its logical conclusion; so long as the conception subsists, the conclusion remains to threaten us."
And, (Levi, 1993, p. 41):
"We are slaves, deprived of every right, exposed to every insult, condemned to certain death, but we still possess one power, and we must defend it with all our strength for it is the last -- the power to refuse our consent."
The focus of Comedians is the relationship between Eddie Waters, who is a former music-hall comic who teaches would-be comics the art of comedy, and Gethin Price, a young man looking for a way to express his political anger. Waters tells his students that comedy should tell the truth, challenging peoples' prejudices rather than pandering to them in order to get a 'cheap laugh'. Price's response to this is a harsh, confrontational piece of theatre focusing on the politics of class in Britain in the 1970's, the style of which is based on the work of a Swiss clown from the early 1900's called Grock. Waters tells Price that his piece was 'brilliant' but too filled with hate. In response Price says it is his 'truth' and accuses Waters of forgetting the truth behind his own hard upbringing. Waters then explains to Price just why he feels that comedy should expose, not pander to prejudice, at the same time explaining his belief that 'You can't change today into tomorrow' on the basis of hate. In so doing Waters (or rather Griffiths) echoes the words of Primo Levi, arguing that what happened in the death camps was not some aberration but merely 'the logic of our world ... extended':
WATERS: Before you were born, I was touring with the E.N.S.A., the war had just ended, a year, maybe more. We were in Germany, B.A.O.R., fooling about till we got our blighty bonds. Somebody ... somebody said there was a guided tour of a bit of East Germany on offer, I got a ticket. I saw Dresden. Dresden? Twenty-five miles of rubble. Freddie Tarleton was with us, good comic, he said it reminded him of Ancoats.... Then they took us to a place called Weimar, where Mozart had a house. Saw his work room, his desk, piano, books. These perfect rooms, all over the house, the sun on the windows.... Down the road, four miles maybe, we pulled up at this camp. There was a party of school kids getting down off a truck ahead of us. And we followed 'em in. 'To each his own' over the gate. They'd cleaned it up, it was like a museum, each room with its separate, special collection. In one of 'em ... the showers ... there was a box of cyanide pellets on a table. 'Ciankali' the label said, just that. A block away, the incinerators, with a big proud maker's label moulded on its middle, someone in Hamburg.... And then this extraordinary thing. (Longish pause.) In this hell-place, a special block, 'Der Straf-bloc', 'Punishment Block'. It took a minute to register, I almost laughed, it seemed so ludicrous. Then I saw it. It was a world like any other. It was the logic of our world ... extended. . (Pulling out of the deep involvement phase of the story.) We crossed back into West Germany the same night, Freddie was doing a concert in Bielefeld. (Long pause.) And he ... quite normally, he's going along, getting the laughs, he tells this joke about a Jew ... I don't remember what it was ... I don't remember what it was ... people laughed, not inordinately, just ... easily ... And I sat there. And I didn't laugh.
(He stands suddenly. Looks hard at PRICE.)
That exercise we do ... thinking of something deep, personal, serious ... then being funny about it ... That's where it came from. (Long pause.) And I discovered ... there were no jokes left. Every joke was a little pellet, a ... final solution.
... The Jews still stayed in line, even when they knew, Eddie!. What's that about?
(He swings his bag off the desk,ready for off.)
I stand in no line. I refuse my consent.
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Comedians (Play for Today: 1979) Pt. 6by StonefieldJim42,465 views
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