Theatre

THE THIRD WAVE

The National Theatre is staging the play “THE THIRD WAVE” written by Ron Jones and Joseph Robinette, translated in greek by Erikos Belies, under the direction of Nikos Arvanitis, at the teenagers’ stage of the HORA theatre in Kipseli (Athens). The opening of the performances, which make part of the winter theatre period 2014-2015 repertoire, is scheduled for October 2014.

It is about a true story regarding an experiment which had taken place in 1967 at Cubberley High School in Northern California, in a period of intensive social revolution, at the time of the war in Vietnam. The play centers on a 25-year, charismatic and popular professor of social sciences, known for his unorthodox methods and his class at the subject of contemporary world history. When a student asks how so many German people could be led to deny the Holocaust of World War II, the professor decides to demonstrate by giving his students an exercise in discipline equal to that of a totalitarian society. To his great surprise, the students are delighted in the order and power of that discipline and abandon their freedom in favor of the prospect of supposed superiority over their schoolmates. They wear uniforms, insignia, salute and banners and get excited in spying and terrifying the other students. His motto was: “Strength through discipline, the community, action, pride”. The class is named “THE THIRD WAVE” and very rapidly other classes as well, even from neighboring schools, desire to be part of this “elite” group. At the end of the week, in the fear of losing control, the professor decides to end this experiment. He announces to his students that this movement is making part of a new national political party with a new leader and invites them to watch the relevant announcement on the TV Friday night. Instead of any such announcement, the professor reveals to them that they have been subjects of an experiment in fascism and all of them, willingly got a feeling of superiority just as in the case of German people during Nazism.

A little after the experiment, the professor Ron Jones was fired from the school and afterwards, for a long time he used to teach drama and sports to physically and mentally disabled, aiming to their reinforcement.

The chronicle of the experiment has been adapted to a TV series, a german movie entitled “Die Welle”, a musical, a TV documentary and a play.

THE ARTBASSADOR has licensed the stage performances of the play in greek language, on behalf of DRAMATIC PUBLISHING, which manages the authors’ rights of Ron Jones and Joseph Robinette.  
                   
More information on the performances here

More information on the experiment here