Entertainer Johannes “Jopie” Heesters, a one-time favourite in Nazi-Germany, is to make another premiere in his nine-decade-long career, at the age of 106.
Local media reported that Heesters, who started his acting career performing in Viennese operettas in the 1930s, is to play a supporting role in dramatist Rolf Hochhuth’s musical Inselkomoedie (Island Comedy) at the Berliner Ensemble starting tomorrow.
The Bild newspaper said: “His body is fragile, but his voice is still strong and powerful.”
Dutch-born Heesters’ career was blighted by acting in frothy Nazi-era movies.
His latest project involves playing the role of a kingly narrator in Hochhuth’s 1974 drama, which tells the tale of the women of a Greek island vowing not to have sex with their husbands until a plan to build a Nato base on their idyll is defeated.
