11. Reigen
box 18/1
LIFE, LETTERS
one of the most dommant contempo¬
rary themes, the misunderstood son,
which is treated also in Wildgans s
Dies Tre and which, indeed, obsesses
half the younger German writers, from
Hasenclever on. Even more character¬
istic is the passionate revolt against the
reign of brute force, an attitude largely
grown out of the horrors of the war, but
symptoms of which were discernible
even before hostilities began. Hasen¬
clever, von Unruh, Schickele, Werfel,
Goring, and many others, are i the full
tide of reaction against the might is
right’ school of thought. But the re¬
volters do not always hope for great
success. These are a few lines from
Cain:
EVE
Fet what a light!
What sudden light
No greater than an eye,
Shining in blue,
Mirroring heaven
Rises, grows, rises!
clouds,
Already reaching to the
It is ether, is the sun!
It moves the birds,
It calls the flowers,
Wakes the names of things,
Looses the tongues of men,
Thaf they may ring with song
Ever, O ever again
Shall Abel be born!
Car (terrible)
And ever again
Shall Cain
Destroy this Abel!
EVE
Then woe upon the earth!
Woe!
The first production of Reigen
(Round Dance), a Schnitzler play writ¬
ten twenty years age, has caused an
outburst of German Puritanism. It
was too much for the staid citizens of
Vienna (it appears there are some),
where it was driven from the stage; and
at Munich the hostile element in the
123
AND THE ARTS
audience employed walking-sticks and
stink-bombs as the most effective
means of registering their views of
dramatic ethics. Under the protection
of the Security Police, the play has been
drawing large houses in Berlin, although
one raid with the odorous bombs oc¬
curred.
Reigen is a rather curious piece of
dramatie-strücture, consisting of ten
dialogues, in which a succession of social
types dance wearily about the altar of
Eros — not the laughing god of Ana¬
creon, but the dismal deity of a modern
city. The dialogues are so arranged
that each character appears in two of
them, each timewith a different partner.
Street-walker and soldier, soldier and
serving-maid, serving-maid and young
gentleman, young gentleman and young
wife, young wife and husband, husband
and girl, girl and poet, actress and no¬
bleman, nobleman and street-walker,
pass over the scene, one pair after an¬
other, and as each pair finishes its turn,
one of the partners whirls off the stage
leaving the other to meet the next com
er. In the end, having shown them all,
Schnitzler leaves off with the street¬
walker with whom he began.
Nothing in the play is really offen¬
sive. The observation has the typical
Schnitzler keenness, the dialogue is
brilliant as ever, and the humor is both
sharp and subtle. But in the printed
plays Schnitzler sometimes has re¬
course to asterisks to eke cut his dia¬
logue, and at the corresponding points
in the play the lights go out. This is
sufficient excuse for a hue and cry which
comes, not, as might be expected, from
the clergy, social reformers, and pro¬
essional moralists, but from the young¬
er menof thewest end of Berlin, manyof
whom had a hand in the Kapp rising.
Under the monarchy the censor
would probably have suppressed this
performance, just as it would have
stopped a recent performance of Oscar
box 18/1
LIFE, LETTERS
one of the most dommant contempo¬
rary themes, the misunderstood son,
which is treated also in Wildgans s
Dies Tre and which, indeed, obsesses
half the younger German writers, from
Hasenclever on. Even more character¬
istic is the passionate revolt against the
reign of brute force, an attitude largely
grown out of the horrors of the war, but
symptoms of which were discernible
even before hostilities began. Hasen¬
clever, von Unruh, Schickele, Werfel,
Goring, and many others, are i the full
tide of reaction against the might is
right’ school of thought. But the re¬
volters do not always hope for great
success. These are a few lines from
Cain:
EVE
Fet what a light!
What sudden light
No greater than an eye,
Shining in blue,
Mirroring heaven
Rises, grows, rises!
clouds,
Already reaching to the
It is ether, is the sun!
It moves the birds,
It calls the flowers,
Wakes the names of things,
Looses the tongues of men,
Thaf they may ring with song
Ever, O ever again
Shall Abel be born!
Car (terrible)
And ever again
Shall Cain
Destroy this Abel!
EVE
Then woe upon the earth!
Woe!
The first production of Reigen
(Round Dance), a Schnitzler play writ¬
ten twenty years age, has caused an
outburst of German Puritanism. It
was too much for the staid citizens of
Vienna (it appears there are some),
where it was driven from the stage; and
at Munich the hostile element in the
123
AND THE ARTS
audience employed walking-sticks and
stink-bombs as the most effective
means of registering their views of
dramatic ethics. Under the protection
of the Security Police, the play has been
drawing large houses in Berlin, although
one raid with the odorous bombs oc¬
curred.
Reigen is a rather curious piece of
dramatie-strücture, consisting of ten
dialogues, in which a succession of social
types dance wearily about the altar of
Eros — not the laughing god of Ana¬
creon, but the dismal deity of a modern
city. The dialogues are so arranged
that each character appears in two of
them, each timewith a different partner.
Street-walker and soldier, soldier and
serving-maid, serving-maid and young
gentleman, young gentleman and young
wife, young wife and husband, husband
and girl, girl and poet, actress and no¬
bleman, nobleman and street-walker,
pass over the scene, one pair after an¬
other, and as each pair finishes its turn,
one of the partners whirls off the stage
leaving the other to meet the next com
er. In the end, having shown them all,
Schnitzler leaves off with the street¬
walker with whom he began.
Nothing in the play is really offen¬
sive. The observation has the typical
Schnitzler keenness, the dialogue is
brilliant as ever, and the humor is both
sharp and subtle. But in the printed
plays Schnitzler sometimes has re¬
course to asterisks to eke cut his dia¬
logue, and at the corresponding points
in the play the lights go out. This is
sufficient excuse for a hue and cry which
comes, not, as might be expected, from
the clergy, social reformers, and pro¬
essional moralists, but from the young¬
er menof thewest end of Berlin, manyof
whom had a hand in the Kapp rising.
Under the monarchy the censor
would probably have suppressed this
performance, just as it would have
stopped a recent performance of Oscar