Chlumberg had experienced
World War One as a teenage lieutenant of a cavalry unit on the Italian Front. After
the War, he began writing anti-war plays. Miracle
at Verdun was his fourth play. More biographical information relating to
Chlumberg is available in a book titled The
Hooded Eagle: Modern German Drama on
the New York Stage by Peter Bauland. This volume was published by Syracuse
University Press in 1968. See pages 106-108.
Verdun was the site of a
long, horrendous battle and for several decades after the war it carried an
emotional response to its name. The Battle of Verdun commenced on March 6,
1916. The French anticipated an attack and added infantry reinforcements as
well as a group of fighter pilots known as “the Storks” which increased their
aircraft numbers to 120. The Germans had
168 planes, 14 observation balloons and 4 Zeppelins. Verdun marks the largest use of aircraft in the
war to date as an adjunct to the infantry battle waged on land. The land battle continued daily until December
22, 1916. One side did not win at
Verdun, but it was the longest battle in history up to that date. It ended as a
result of generals from both sides being moved to other battlefronts: the Kaiser
was persuaded that the Verdun offensive was a failure. The French believed it
was a stalemate. France suffered 377,231
casualties; Germany counted 337,000—a total exceeding 700,000, including
approximately 420,000 dead. This futile ten month battle clearly evokes the
senselessness and suffering of war. The title of the play must
have had audiences, especially the Europeans, clearly wondering what the play
would reveal.
The script of the play is
divided into scenes rather than acts.
The story commences twenty years after the end of World War One—August,
1934. A group of tourists from America,
England, France and Germany are on an excursion organized by Cooks Tours featuring
World War One battlefields as a remembrance of the war on its twentieth
anniversary. This group of tourists arrived at a clearing in the Argonne Forest
in France where there is a small military burial ground. The tourists begin to
bicker with each other over the role their respective countries played in the
war. The next scene of the play introduces the dead soldiers who rise from
their graves and discuss their former lives. The dead French and German
soldiers leave their gravesites and return to their communities where they no
longer have a place and are viewed as liabilities. Eventually, a group of Ambassadors
and other representatives from several nations convene to determine if the resurrection
of the soldiers is a miracle. The group’s final determination is that the
resurrection of the soldiers is not a miracle and the soldiers must return to
their graves. The final scene of the play reveals that the previous scenes
related to the dead soldiers were actually a dream of one of the German tourist
named Heydner.
The play Miracle at Verdun is experimental in
its writing style. It also required production methods that were innovative in 1930. The
script combines mainly elements of expressionism with realism and it uses a
pattern of moving from episode to episode. Frequently each scene is built around
a different character; therefore, the emotional range of a central character is
never explored as it is in a realistic drama. “Verdun” requires a style of
production that incorporates different ways of holding the audience’s attention
throughout, since the play does not focus on the actions and thoughts of a
single protagonist. The original German production utilized theatrical
techniques developed by Edwin Piscator, an innovative German theatre director
and producer who was experimenting with staging components now recognized as
early elements in the Epic Theatre style that was further developed by Bertolt
Brecht.
NOTE: Productions in
English of Miracle at Verdun will be discussed
in the forthcoming post.
Reference for Battle of Verdun information:
Burg, David
F. and Purcell, L. Edward. Almanac of World War I. Lexington, KY:
The University Press of Kentucky, 1998.
Reference for Miracle of Verdun photo at top:
Nadel, Norman. a pictorial history of the THEATRE GUILD. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1969. 111.
Reference for Miracle of Verdun photo at top:
Nadel, Norman. a pictorial history of the THEATRE GUILD. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1969. 111.
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