ENDSIEG: THE SECOND COMING for Donald Trump

Parallel online readings in German and English of Elfriede Jelinek’s new play ENDSIEG: THE SECOND COMING—a response to the re-election of Donald Trump. Directed by Milo Rau, English translation by Gitta Honegger. With introductory words by Elfriede Jelinek on the occasion of the Iraqi-American parallel reading, followed by a Q and A with Milo Rau and Gitta Honegger, moderated by Frank Hentschker, executive director of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center.

The  Martin E. Segal Theatre Center  in  New York City in collaboration with the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna presents on Inauguration Day an online reading of Elfriede Jelinek’s  ENDSIEG:THE SECOND COMING.  Translated by Gitta Honegger,  directed by Milo Rau,  and livestreamed  on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network.

German version read by Ursina Lardi in  Mossul/Iraq; American version by  Nicole Ansari-Cox in New York/United States of America.

This online reading of  ENDSIEG: THE SECOND COMING  is the very first workshop presentation of the English version of the play. With generous permission of Rowohlt Publishing House, Hamburg, Germany.

About the Play

Democracy is in  a serious crisis  and people are confused. Elfriede Jelinek responded to Donald Trump’s second election victory with an important text:  Endsieg, a grim sequel to  Am Königsweg / The Burgher King, her play about the United States election eight years ago.

Jelinek shows how his followers see the “new old king” as a divinely chosen redeemer. But the king is not alone, there are shadows behind him, his political and economic cliques, fighting for his attention and with each other. And the resistance is collapsing: “I say there is nothing more, there is nothing else, the other no longer exists, there is nothing to see, there is only the one left,” states the blind seer. So, what is left besides Jelinek’s relentless exploration of our times?

Bios

The Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek received the 2004 Nobel Prize for Literature and many other prestigious literary and theatre awards. She is best known in the United States from Michael Haneke’s film The Piano Teacher based on her novel Die Klavierspielerin. Since the Nobel award she has written only one novel, but many plays addressing urgent issues of our times. Her themes include the politics of memory and guilt (Rechnitz); the 2008 global financial crisis, (Die Kontrakte des Kaufmanns); the rapidly escalating European refugee crisis (Die Schutzbefohlenen); the 2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris (Wut), her immediate response to Donald Trump’s first election (Auf dem Königsweg), followed now by Endsieg, which she wrote within two weeks immediately after the election. Jelinek is one of the most produced living authors/playwrights in the German language world. Her plays are presented by all the major theatre companies often staged by leading innovative directors. These productions have been invited to countless prestigious international festivals and received numerous awards. Her plays have also been produced across Europe, in Japan, India, Australia, and China. In the United Statse, the only fully professional staging was the 2013 New York Woman’s Project Theatre’s production of Jackie, directed by Tea Alagic. It was nominated for two Lucille Lortel awards, for outstanding solo show and outstanding sound design. Most recently, her opus magnum, the epic horror novel Die Kinder der Toten (The Children of the Dead) about the undead victims and perpetrators of the Holocaust, was published in the United States in Gitta Honegger’s translation in March 2024 by Yale University Press, twenty-nine years after its first German publication. As of now, it has been (very perceptively) reviewed in the mainstream press by the Washington Post and The Nation.    

Gitta Honegger is the longtime translator of Elfriede Jelinek.  Her translations of Jelinek’s performance texts include: Sun; Shadow: Eurydice Says (both Performing Arts Journal); Rechnitz (The Avenging Angel); the Merchant’s Contracts—A Comedy of Economics;  Charges (The Supplicants); Fury; On the Royal Road: The Burgher King;  (all Seagull Books/U. of Chicago Press), the “Princess Plays” Jackie, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty (Theater), Air, Ashes, Full Disclosure (forthcoming at Rowohlt Theaterverlag), Winterreise (in process). Most recently, her translation of Jelinek’s opus magnum, the 666-page novel  The Children of the Dead  was published by Yale University Press in 2024. She also translated plays by Thomas Bernhard, Elias Canetti, Marie Luise Fleisser and others.  Her cultural biography Thomas Bernhard: The Making of an Austrian (Yale U. Press) was also published in her translation into German, Thomas Bernhard: Was ist das für ein Narr by Propyläen Verlag. Dr. Honegger was a professor of dramaturgy and dramatic criticism at the Yale School of Drama and resident dramaturg at the Yale Repertory Theatre, where she also directed. She lives in Santa Fe and Berlin.

Nicole Ansari-Cox is an award winning actor, director, writer, producer and activist for Human Rights and Climate change. Nicole’s career started in European theatre and film, and has expanded to many countries, languages and cultures, latterly mostly in the United States of America. She performed with the famed theatre du Soleil under Ariane Mnouchkine in Paris and on tour, and has starred in numerous plays in Vienna, Zurich, London, Berlin and New York. Nicole originated her role in Tom Stoppard’s Rock N’ Roll, directed by Trevor Nunn at the Royal Court in London and went on to perform in the West End and on Broadway.  Nicole created and directed the multimedia show She/ her at Performance Space for the 21st century in New York and brought the show to Edinburgh for a full run. In London, Nicole was most recently seen in Women who blow on knots at the Arcola Theatre and she is about to perform at the Haymarket in the Score, opposite her husband Brian Cox, directed by Trevor Nunn. Film and TV: Soderbergh’s Side Effects; Land of Dreams, What a Feeling, Succession; Law and Order, FBI, amongst many others. Upcoming: Under the stars; Jukebox; Hotel Tehran and Glenrothan. Awards: Best director for the Web series Messy; The Vanja Exerjian award for empowering women and AFI best ensemble for the Civil Rights feature Son of the South. 

Ursina Lardi, Member of the Schaubühne ensemble since 2012. Born in Samedan (Switzerland). Studied acting at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin.  Engagements at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Schauspiel Frankfurt, Schauspiel Hannover, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg and the Berliner Ensemble.  Numerous appearances in films and on television including in The White Ribbon (2009, directed by Michael Haneke, Palme d’Or at Cannes), Lore (2012, directed by Cate Shortland, Lola in Bronze) and Der namenlose Tag (2017, directed by Volker Schlöndorff). Accolades include: 2006 Prize of the Eliette von Karajan Cultural Foundation, 2014 Swiss Film Award for Best Actress. Guest of honor with her own retrospective at the 2016 Solothurn Film Festival. 2017 Hans Reinhart Ring, the most prestigious Swiss award for theatre professionals. Together with Milo Rau, she has created Compassion. The History of the Machine Gun (2015), Lenin (2017), Everywoman (2020), touring the whole world. Lardi and Rau are currently working on their latest play The Seer in Mosul (Iraq), a co-production of the Vienna Festival, the Venice Biennale and the Schaubühne Berlin, premiering in June 2025.

Milo Rau, born 1977 in Bern, is the artistic director of the Vienna Festival (Wiener Festwochen) | Free Republic of Vienna. Critics call him the “most influential” (Die Zeit), “most interesting” (De Standaard), “most controversial” (La Republica), “most scandalous” (New York Times) or “most ambitious” (the Guardian) artist of our time. The director and author has published over fifty plays, films, books, and actions. His theatre productions have been shown at all major international festivals, including the Berlin Theatertreffen, the Festival d’Avignon, the Venice Biennale, the Vienna Festival and the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, and have been touring in over thirty countries worldwide. From 2018 to 2024, Milo Rau was Artistic Director of NTGent (Belgium).