The Wild West is everywhere!

(This experience actually happened at the end of my second week here; however, I write about it now because it's still cool.)
My family had prefaced the play we were going to on Saturday night by telling me that we were going to a Western. Of course, I immediately thought of Westerns as they exist in the US: cowboys and Indians, shooting and horseback riding --The Wild Old West, immortalized in film and the creation of a genre dedicated to its portrayal. But then I was like, wait a second. I'm in Germany. Why would they ever show American Westerns? That'd be silly. So I resigned myself to being surprised at what a German Western could be when we arrived at the theatre. I also knew the stage was outdoors so I prayed for nice weather.

Luckily, the weather was gorgeous as I walked with my host father from the car in the grass parking lot and followed the crowds of people to wherever we were going. As I looked around, I noted some extremely oddly dressed individuals. There were a lot of moccasins, suede accessories, and feathers head pieces bobbing about in the hoard heading into town. This was only a taste of what was to come. Soon enough, we had entered a Wild West Village, complete with a trading post, feed stand, teepee, and other cowboy themed merchandising opportunities. The icing on the cake (or so I thought at the time) was the swarms of Germans and other tourists of sort parading around in Wild West gear, eagerly awaiting that evening's show.

Before I get into my experience of the main attraction, perhaps I should actually elucidate where I actually was and what exactly I was going to see. I was at the 2013 Karl-May-Spiele's production of Winnetou I-Blutsbruder in Bad Segeberg. Who is Karl May? Karl May was a prolific German author that wrote Westerns and is specifically known for the Winnetou-tetralogy. He is so well known that every year in Bad Segeberg, the Karl-May-Spiele produces one of his works in play-form. The Winnetou books portray the story of Winnetou and the Apache Indians as he battles the all the evil the world can throw at him. The stories are recorded by a journalist from the east coast that just recently moved west, Charlie Shatterhand. He and Winnetou become blood brothers and Shatterhand inevitably falls in love with Winnetou's beautiful sister (doesn't go well).

Anyways, after grabbing a bite at the restaurant next to the Trading Post, my hostfather and I met with the rest of the family and family friends and starting making our way to our seats. I'm not exactly sure what I was picturing before I entered the theatre (theatre is hardly the right word) but I was entirely shocked by the mini-town that made up the stage. Here, I'll just add a picture.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the trails where the horses ran through the different levels of the audience but just know it was cool.

And it was full.

I'll add some more pictures in another post but now, on with my story. I'm not going to go step by step through the plot because that's lame but I am going to hit the most intriguing point: watching the Wild West in German. Because really, what is the Wild West without the associated slang?

The production team conquers the lingual barrier with a liberal use of Denglish, text predominantly in Deutsch but punctuated with phrases and interjections in English. The character who spoke the most English was wealthy Englishman who popped up throughout the show to add comic relief.
Here he is:

 

 The experience of a German Old West is definitely a bit difficult to explain but the bottom line is that it was so fun.

A metaphor for you: The context in which someone exists alters their perceptions of everything, like the lenses in glasses.

Just sit for a second on the phrase, "The Wild West". Immediately after reading the words you're filled with images, associations, and stereotypes. At this point, you're already one level back from the actual history. This is your basic lens. You see everything through these basic lenses that your culture, experiences, and context built into you and you need them to attain understanding of foreign or distant topics by interpretation through or association with personal experience. Now let's take another step back. Karl May's books are a portrayal of the American portrayal of the Old West, altered by all the differences that make Germany not the US. Germany is pretty far away from the Old West, so the lenses he adds have quite a heft prescription. The combination of the two lenses is a little trippy but not irreconcilable. Next, his interpretation of an interpretation is taken by a production team and a bunch of actors and turned into something they connect with and audiences will love. The fourth lens is a bit more nuanced than the others. It is the effect of my preconceptions about Germans and Germany. What I expect them to laugh at or when I expect a cheer also affects how I watch and understand the show. This lens isn't purposeful interpretation, it is more of a subconscious self-consciousness about a foreign portrayal of a national aspect. So now I'm sitting there with these crazy glasses on preparing to enjoy whatever the night has in store.

Hopefully that was halfway-coherent because it's actually really cool. Anyways, Winnetou I: Blut Bruder was quite the experience and if next summer's production starts while I'm still in Germany, I'll be there. Maybe my perspective will already have changed between summer 2013 and summer 2014.