Publications

Parallel Lives. A Documentary Theatre Project on Secret Police in Eastern Europe

Editors: Martina Vannayová, Ján Šimko
Publisher: Theater der Zeit, Berlin
Content: 251 pages
ISBN: 978-3-943881-87-5
Year: 2014

A documentary project on communist secret services in the former Eastern bloc

Parallel Lives. A Documentary Theatre Project on Secret Police in Eastern Europe is a long-term project of Slovakia’s international theatre festival Divadelná Nitra in 2013: Six teams of artists from six countries (Germany, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania) created plays and performances on the basis of files they had researched in the archives of the former communist secret services of their respective countries. Based on this material and adopting a wide variety of artistic approaches, they staged the life stories of people connected with secret service activities – as victims or offenders.

The book Parallel Lives is a document of this project, putting it into a historical and political context, and locating it academically in relation to theatre studies. The book reflects on the possibilities, opportunities and risks of current approaches to documentary theatre in the countries of the former Eastern bloc.

This publication is available at ERSTE Foundation Library.

Florian Bauer

Director Social Finance, Sustainability and Innovation
Since 2023, Florian Bauer has been responsible for social finance, sustainability and social innovation at ERSTE Foundation. Prior to this role, Florian worked in the NGO & Social Entrepreneurship sector for more than 13 years. He led the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), an international multilateral NGO that works to accelerate market-based deployment of renewable energy and energy efficient systems in developing countries, and was Managing Director & COO of the Impact Hub Vienna. From 2020-2023, Florian established strategic alliances with key partners and helped to create innovative semantic technology solutions at Semantic Web Company (SWC), a leading IT company in semantic AI solutions.