Fast Forward

From a legal perspective, the investigation into the racist murders carried out by the National Socialist Underground (NSU), which was active in Germany from 1998 onwards, has been marked by considerable problems: evidence frantically destroyed by the authorities, a dubious network of undercover agents in the radical right-wing scene and one-sided police investigations that also turned the traumatised families of the victims into suspects. Less attention was given to a piece of literature, that has been proven to be a blueprint for Neonazis worldwide: THE TURNER DIARIES by the American Nazi William L. Pierce very likely inspired the NSU as it provided the perfect scenario for their political aims. Its first-person narrator Earl Turner gives an account of how an underground terrorist cell destabilises “the system” with bombings and assassinations and triggers a worldwide “white revolution”.

PLAYING EARL TURNER combines documentary and fiction in an atmospheric theatre-film, which gradually reveals the strategies and thought patterns of the perpetrators and the ideological programme of an international network of right-wing terror. A disturbing scenario emerges from the juxtaposition of transcripts from the NSU trial and scenes from THE TURNER DIARIES, which fundamentally questions the myth of lone perpetrators.

Stefan Schweigert, *1990, studied directing at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, was an assistant director at the Residenztheater München and since then has worked as a freelance director. He also works as a dramaturgical advisor for the choreographer Wim Vandekeybus and Ultima Vez.

WITH Simon Dietersdorfer, Nora Jacobs, Simon Mantei

CONCEPT, TEXT & DIRECTION Stefan Schweigert

CONCEPT, TEXT & DRAMATURGY Laura Andreß

SCENOGRAPHY Lucas Fischötter / COSTUMES Andrea Simeon / CAMERA, SOUND & POSTPRODUCTION Ali Andress / VIDEO & LIGHTING DESIGN Martin Siemann / COMPOSITION & SOUND DESIGN Simon Dietersdorfer / ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Linda Fress  / PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Valentin Werner / PRODUCTION die werker*innen in cooperation with / WERK X-Petersplatz & coproduced by Okto Okto Community TV / THANKS TO Ulli Jentsch (apabiz – antifaschistisches Pressearchiv und Bildungszentrum Berlin), Hajo Funke, Tanjev Schultz & Bernhard Weidinger (Dokumentationsarchiv des österreichischen Widerstandes) / ENGLISH SUBTITLES Jacob Watson