Paul Pörtner (25 January 1925 – 16 November 1984) was a German playwright, novelist, translator, and editor.
Life
After completing a directorial apprenticeship at the municipal theatre of his native Wuppertal, from 1951 Pörtner studied philosophy, plus German and French literature, at the University of Cologne. He later continued his studies in France. In 1958 he began earning a living as a professional author, and from 1976 on was permanently employed by Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Hamburg as a director of radio plays.
His short stories and novels very often deal with social outsiders and the disadvantaged – as a young man, he himself became physically handicapped during World War II. His work shows Pörtner to be a writer who was also deeply drawn to burlesque, in which his characters act in desperate and irrational ways. He also consistently uses experimental language and wordplay.
His interest in avant-garde theatre led him to embrace the theories of Jacob Levy Moreno, Antonin Artaud and Erwin Piscator. In addition, through his stage work as director and playwright he fell under the charm of commedia dell'arte, as well as the absurdism of Kurt Schwitters and Alfred Jarry. In 1963 Pörtner wrote the interactive play Scherenschnitt oder Der Mörder sind Sie in which the audience takes a leading role. This was first performed the same year at Theater Ulm, and at least seventy-five other German theatres followed suit.
In the United States Scherenschnitt, rewritten and titled Shear Madness, became the longest-running, non-musical play in USA stage history. Productions in eighteen other countries have made Scherenschnitt an international hit: with the exception of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, Pörtner's interactive play is currently the longest-running play in the world.
In addition to his seventeen theatre plays, Pörtner wrote more than 20 radio plays that are still influential in the German-speaking world.
Selected works
Publications
Sternbild Selbstbild. Poems. Wuppertal 1958
Schattensteine. Poems. Wuppertal 1958
Wurzelwerk. Poems. Wuppertal 1960
Experiment Theater. Chronik und Dokumente. Chronicles and documents. Zürich 1960
Tobias Immergrün. Novel. Köln 1962
Sophie Imperator. Drama. Köln 1964
Scherenschnitt. Kriminalstück zum Mitspielen. Stage-play. Köln 1964
Gestern. Novel. Köln 1965
Einkreisung eines dicken Mannes. Erzählungen, Beschreibungen, Grotesken. Tales. Köln 1968 Spontanes Theater. Erfahrungen, Konzepte. Essays. Köln 1972
Plays
Mensch Meier oder Das Glücksrad, 1959
Variationen für zwei Schauspieler, 1960
Sophie Imperator, 1961
Drei, 1962
Scherenschnitt oder Der Mörder sind Sie (Shear Madness), 1963
Spielautomat, 1967
Mascha, Mischa und Mai. Stage-play for children, 1968
Börsenspiel, 1970
Kontaktprogramm, 1971
Interaktionen, 1971
Test Test Test, 1972
Polizeistunde, 1975
Halt Dich da raus, 1975
Tierspiel, 1978
Radio plays
Was sagen Sie zu Erwin Mauss? Einkreisung eines dicken Mannes. NDR 1968
Scherben bringen Glück. WDR 1970
Alea. WDR/BR/SDR 1969 / 1971
Dadaphon. Hommage à Dada. WDR 1974
Comeback. Portrait einer Frau die singt. SR/NDR/BR 1977
Einmischung erbeten. HR 1977
Blitzlicht. HR 1980
Radio-Erinnerungen. NDR 1983
Translations
Alfred Jarry: König Ubu. Zürich 1959
Pablo Picasso, Jean Tardieu: Der Raum und die Flöte. Variationen zu 12 Zeichnungen. Zürich 1959 Jean Tardieu: Kammertheater. Neuwied 1960 André Frénaud: Quelle der Quellen. Neuwied 1962 Jean Tardieu: Professor Froeppel. Köln 1966
External links
Literature by and about Paul Pörtner in the catalogue of Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Paul Pörtner in the German and English versions of the Internet Movie Database Reinhard Döhl über Paul Pörtner Porträt der Stadtverwaltung Wuppertal