On this day in 1986, the Canberra Theatre prepared to welcome visiting Austrian actor, Justus Neumann, for his one-man performance, Kill Hamlet. Although it was common for actors to be one-eyed and view the theatre as a stage with the best kind of soapbox, Neumann had a different idea of his role as a performer and persuader.
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He said: "Now that I've been working in the theatre for 13 years, I don't think we need it. Because we've got everything in us. Every one of us has got enough fantasy ... to express ourselves. The problem is there are things in us that get killed in the very early stage of our life."
Neumann continued to stress the importance of removing the pressure and said: "As [far as] living is concerned there is so much fear or fright and so much pressure that it takes a lot of our nature away. We go to the theatre to fulfil this desire; our own desire. So maybe I'm doing nothing else but trying to stimulate [this] desire."
As the non-conformist he is, Neumann said: "For myself it's a game. I take the chance that I know about these desires, about the things that happen around me and I try to get out of it and entertain myself. And if I entertain myself right, I entertain the other people as well."
