11
Reigen
box 18/2
THE ENGLISH REVIEW Gpen
advantage, however. Sudermann’s mechanics and in¬
2
sincerities were never revealed in a more pitiable light than
in the State Theatre revival of Das Glück im Winkel,
where the lover’s passion is allowed to sweep the old school¬
master’s wife off her balance, and then, at her critical
moment, is defeated bythe sentimentality of the dried-un
husband’s plea for respectability and the children!
Of course, there is the more popular' type of
play, such as The American Girl and Potask and
Berlmatter but only out in the respectable Charlotten¬
burg district can be found one of those pieces for
which Berlin is supposed to be notorious, although it
called forth much indignant protest at its first per¬
formances. This is Reigen (Dhe Circke) by Arthur
Schnitzler. For many years the author himself refusedto
permit the play to be staged. Financial considerations, we
are told, have made possible its presentation twenty years
after it was written.
Reigen is truly an amazing production. There are ten
scenes, or episodes, each exhibiting the sexual promiscuity
of men and women. When the curtain rises we see a street
prostitute accosting and bargaining with a soldier, who
retires with her into the shadow of a railway arch. The
thunder of a passing train overhead symbolises their im¬
mediate relationship. They return to the stage, the
soldier, like all the men in the succee ling episodes, ex¬
hibiting every sign of satiety and of contempt at a trivi¬
ality, the woman every sign that she regards the occurrence
as of importance. The next scene is between the soldier
and a housemaid, the third between the maid and the young
master at the house where she is employed, and so on,
through the sordidness and glitter of the varying grades of
relationship, until finally the circle is completed with an
incident between a high official and the street prostitute of
the opening scene. The dialogue is brilliant throughout,
and the. serious purpose of the play well and delicately
emphasised by the players. But it certainly should have
been confined to one’s reading in the study, though there
need be no regret that it should have to be recorded, if only
because it is done so as an isolated case.
230
Skue d adz
Reigen
box 18/2
THE ENGLISH REVIEW Gpen
advantage, however. Sudermann’s mechanics and in¬
2
sincerities were never revealed in a more pitiable light than
in the State Theatre revival of Das Glück im Winkel,
where the lover’s passion is allowed to sweep the old school¬
master’s wife off her balance, and then, at her critical
moment, is defeated bythe sentimentality of the dried-un
husband’s plea for respectability and the children!
Of course, there is the more popular' type of
play, such as The American Girl and Potask and
Berlmatter but only out in the respectable Charlotten¬
burg district can be found one of those pieces for
which Berlin is supposed to be notorious, although it
called forth much indignant protest at its first per¬
formances. This is Reigen (Dhe Circke) by Arthur
Schnitzler. For many years the author himself refusedto
permit the play to be staged. Financial considerations, we
are told, have made possible its presentation twenty years
after it was written.
Reigen is truly an amazing production. There are ten
scenes, or episodes, each exhibiting the sexual promiscuity
of men and women. When the curtain rises we see a street
prostitute accosting and bargaining with a soldier, who
retires with her into the shadow of a railway arch. The
thunder of a passing train overhead symbolises their im¬
mediate relationship. They return to the stage, the
soldier, like all the men in the succee ling episodes, ex¬
hibiting every sign of satiety and of contempt at a trivi¬
ality, the woman every sign that she regards the occurrence
as of importance. The next scene is between the soldier
and a housemaid, the third between the maid and the young
master at the house where she is employed, and so on,
through the sordidness and glitter of the varying grades of
relationship, until finally the circle is completed with an
incident between a high official and the street prostitute of
the opening scene. The dialogue is brilliant throughout,
and the. serious purpose of the play well and delicately
emphasised by the players. But it certainly should have
been confined to one’s reading in the study, though there
need be no regret that it should have to be recorded, if only
because it is done so as an isolated case.
230
Skue d adz