Abstract: The present article analyses three works by George Tabori (‚Jubiläum‘, ‚Weisman und Rotgesicht‘, ‚Die Ballade vom Wiener Schnitzel‘) from the perspective of cultural research on emotions. Based on Tabori’s conceptualization of affective theatre, his strategies for creating feelings and moods are examined. This question appears particularly interesting in the context of the topographies of the cold, which are predominant in Tabori’s plays and act as post-configurations of the historical constellation of killing and dying in the Second World War. The emotional spaces and atmospheres conjured up by relations between people, landscapes and things contribute to the uncomfortable affective programme of the plays. Both dramaturgical and aesthetic strategies result in a high degree of affective ambivalence.

Keywords: George Tabori, theatre and affect, emotional turn, mood, atmosphere