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Ganesh Versus the Third Reich
Back to Back Theatre

Venue: Dunstan Playhouse
When: Mon 27 Feb 11:05 AM - 11:30 AM
Genre: Theatre
Main Audience: Adults (18+)
Producer: Alice Nash
No. in touring party: 11

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich is poignant, beautiful, disarming, full of vulnerability and sly transparency.

The story begins with the elephant-headed god Ganesh travelling through Nazi Germany to reclaim the Swastika, an ancient Hindu symbol. As this intrepid hero embarks on his journey a second narrative is revealed: the actors themselves begin to feel the weighty responsibility of storytellers and question the ethics of cultural appropriation.

Cleverly interwoven in the play’s design is the story of a young man inspired to create a play about Ganesh, god of overcoming obstacles. He is an everyman who must find the strength to overcome the difficulties in his own life, and defend his play and his collaborators against an overbearing colleague.

The show is made before our very eyes and takes on its own life. It invites us to examine who has the right to tell a story and who has the right to be heard. It explores our complicity in creating and dismantling the world, human possibility and hope.

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich is a work for the near future, seemingly impossible to make.

“Courageous, confronting, intelligent and magisterially considered theatre.” – The Age, 5 stars

Back to Back Theatre

Back to Back Theatre creates new forms of contemporary theatre imagined from the minds and experiences of a unique ensemble of actors with a disability, giving voice to social and political issues that speak to all people.

Back to Back Theatre has developed a reputation for its unique ability to present the issues of our times with a distinct outsider focus. Back to Back Theatre’s previous shows soft, small metal objects and Food Court, have won national and international acclaim for their bold investigations into the ensemble’s collective imagination. Over the last five years Back to Back has toured to over 40 cities across the world. The Geelong-based company is now one of Australia’s most globally recognised and respected contemporary theatre companies.

With Bruce Gladwin as Artistic Director, Back to Back has nurtured a unique artistic voice, placing the ensemble at the centre of social and cultural dialogue. Through a process of research, improvisation and scripting, and collaboration between the ensemble, Artistic Director and invited guest artists, new work is realised.

Back to Back also has two new works in development: Laser Beak Man and Mute.

Photo: Jeff Busby