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Enigma Emmy Goering / Nico Sphinx of Ice

26 Mar - 2 Apr 2008, Fritsch Fest, Nibelheim, The Arts Centre, Christchurch
1-2 July 2008, ADSA Conference, Allen Hall, Dunedin
21 Nov 2008, Media Club, 191 Armagh St, Christchurch (Nico Sphinx of Ice only)
PRODUCTION CREDITS
Enigma Emmy Göring and Nico Sphinx of Ice are two monologues by Werner Fritsch about two very different German blondes who, nevertheless, have something in common: they have both been traumatised by the recent German fascist past. Emmy Göring was the wife of Hitler's designated successor, Hermann Göring. Nico, a former model, became famous when Andy Warhol made her a singer for Velvet Underground.

Emmy is an enigma as, in the 1970s, she reveals her continued loyalty to the fascist cause when reflecting back on her life while under anaesthesia in a dentist's chair. She regards herself as the good, sweet girl her parents brought up.

Nico, by contrast, is bitter and cold. Also full of drugs, she remembers her childhood under fascism but especially her lovers and collaborators - Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Lou Reed, and above all Jim Morrison, whose music features throughout. Nico was every man's fantasy, famous for singing her lovers' songs. Then she decided to sing her own.
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Reviews and Articles

For students of contemporary theatre and indeed anyone seriously prepared to step aside from conventional performance work, these pieces are an interesting prospect. They are not for everyone but neither do they give off the whiff of indulgence sometimes associated with non-commercial productions.

​Startling Productions with Two Faces
Lindsay Clark, Theatreview, 30 March 2008
You could almost have been in druidic ritual, witnessing rather than just watching the events that unfold. For those who have only ever been in traditional theatre, it is a very different feeling, more intimate, and more real. 

Last show tonight!

Julia Whitehead, CANTA, 2 April 2008
Free Theatre performs German plays in playwright's presence
Chronicle, Friday 4 April 2008

Research

Marian McCurdy used Enigma Emmy Goering and Nico Sphinx of Ice as material for her PhD research Acting and it's Refusal in Theatre and Film Canterbury University,  2014 later published by Intellect Books as Acting and it's Refusal: The Devil Makes Believe. ​

Media Club Performance

Free Theatre presented an evening of stories, songs, and poetry alongside the Nico monologue. Ian Loughran, a former Nico roadie and poet and musician in his own right, who was a 17 year old in Manchester when he befriended Nico in the early '80s. Ian performed poems he wrote as a "star-struck teenager" along with some of his recent work and stories of their time together, which revealed the ongoing impact Nico had on his life. 
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She started at some point, um, having a real resentment over her good looks. She hated the fact that people thought she was beautiful. She thought this was some sort of disgrace to be beautiful... But in those days modelling was not artistic... you know, artistic was to be like Janis Joplin screaming your lungs out before you die of drug addiction... She was so happy to be called ugly...
- Paul Morrissey
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  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • A brief history...
    • Manifestos and Writings
    • Who We Are
    • The University Connection
    • Shirley Horrocks documentary
    • Training and Devising
    • Home, Space and Design
  • WHATS ON
    • The Passionate Puritan
  • EDUCATION
    • Kids Holiday Programmes
    • Schools Workshops
    • Adult workshops
  • PRODUCTIONS 1979 - present
    • The Cat Eleonore
    • The Deadbeat Opera
    • Babylon Berlin
    • Beggars Banquet
    • Woyzeck
    • The Axe
    • Endgame
    • Digitising Performance
    • Erewhon: Over the Range
    • A Summer Night's Dream
    • How Dare You
    • A Winter's Tale
    • Ars Acustica
    • Alice
    • The Black Rider
    • Frankenstein
    • The Mauricio Kagel Project
    • Footprints/Tapuwae
    • Kafka's Amerika
    • Ubu Nights >
      • Past Ubu Nights >
        • Ma Ubu Night
        • Ubu Through the Looking Glass
        • Ubu in Wonderland Ubu Night
        • Frankenstein Ubu Night
        • Casablanca Ubu Night
        • Faust Ubu Night
        • Not Hamlet Ubu Night
        • Punk Ubu Night
        • The Art of the Deal Ubu Night
        • Crossroads Ubu Night
        • Ubu Shows Us the Way to Brecht's Whiskey Bar
        • The Devil and the Blues Ubu Night
        • Bowie Ubu Night
        • Warhol Ubu Night
        • Berlin Kabarette
        • Beat Ubu Night
        • Twin Peaks Ubu Night
        • David Lynch Ubu Night
        • Kafka Ubu Night
        • Tango Ubu Night
        • Ubu Ubu Night
        • Lovecraft Ubu Night
    • Canterbury Tales
    • The Soldier's Tale
    • Bluebeard's Castle >
      • Bluebeard's Castle credits
    • I Sing the Body Electric
    • Big Heads Protest
    • Hereafter
    • Passion, Pulse and Power
    • The Earthquake in Chile
    • Don Giovanni Invites you to Dinner
    • Doctor Faustus
    • The Marvellous Corricks >
      • Corricks - Credits
    • Distraction Camp
    • Remake
    • Ella and Susn
    • There and Back Again
    • Faust Chroma
    • Enigma Emmy Goering/Nico Sphinx of Ice
    • Change Proposal
    • Faust Feast
    • Diana Down Under
    • Philoctetes >
      • Production Credits - Piloctetes
    • Fantasia
    • Christmas Shopping
    • Grimm's Sleeping Beauty
    • Achternbusch in the Antipodes
    • Caucasian Chalk Circle
    • Samson Airline
    • Antigone
    • Kabarett Kabul
    • Footprints/Tapuwae
    • The Well Intentioned Wife
    • The Last Days of Mankind
    • Bakkhai / Diotek
    • Krapp's Last Tape
    • Murderer Hope of Women / The Philosopher's Stone
    • Comrade Savage
    • Love on a Bicycle
    • Crusoe: A Lapsarian Mass in Twelve Movements
    • Medea
    • Songs to the Judges
    • Resolution Island
    • Oedipus Rex/Oedipus at Colonus
    • The Empire Builders
    • States of Shock
    • Robinson Crusoe or: I That Was Born To Be My Own Destroyer
    • Power
    • MedeaMaterial
    • Salome
    • Electra
    • The Girl Who Sings Waterfalls
    • Hamletmachine
    • Oresteia
    • A Respectable Wedding
    • Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
    • Cloudkiwiland
    • Double Act / Postponeless >
      • double act credits
    • Preversions
    • The Mortal Pleasure of Wander Lust
    • Red Cross & Takeaway
    • Lulu
    • Cowboy Mouth
    • The Meeting >
      • the meeting credits
    • Action / Tongues
    • The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny
    • A Letter from L
    • Dinosaurs and All the Rubbish / The Hunting of the Snark
    • Free Theatre Christmas Show
    • The Ride Across Lake Constance
    • Electra
    • In Three Minds
    • The Rapist Over Suzannah
    • 1984: The Future Is Now
    • Make-up Ground down / Texts for Decomposition
    • Leonce and Lena
    • Court Case: Free Theatre vs The Arts Centre
    • The Almost Free Theatre Kabernette
    • The Joffongract
    • King Lear
    • Kabarett
    • King Ubu
    • Black Cat Cabaret
    • The Gas Heart/Ox on the Roof/The Mirror Wardrobe One Fine Evening
    • Jazz Cellar Dada / Heavy Metal Cabaret
    • Round Dance
    • Woyzeck
  • Te Puna Toi
    • Past Te Puna Toi Projects
    • Artists in Residence
  • SUPPORT
  • CONTACT
  • CNZ application