TRANSFORMATION CONTINUED

Expressionism did not emerge in the theatre until the last two years of World War One and it closely followed the growth of the anti-war movement. Toller’s attraction to this emerging style of drama is not surprising given his background. He was young, educated and attracted to the latest political ideas. Expressionism was in rebellion against the established theatrical styles of realism and naturalism as well as conventional societal and political norms.  The young men against the war were expressing their thoughts in this new style and Toller’s theme for Transformation aligned perfectly. Also, he was an emotional person and the use of rhetorical language worked for him.

Transformation utilizes many of the characteristics that are part of the Expressionists’ signature, but there is another element in this play that I believe is important to mention.  The visual features required to tell the story in Transformation strike me as being an extremely powerful element in the play. The stage directions may be the work of either Karlheinz Martin, Director, or provided by Toller, but they made the play a memorable theatrical event. One striking example is Third Station, Sixth Scene, The Maimed:

      The MEDICAL ORDERLIES set up a square white screen. A MEDICAL

      ORDERLY gives a signal. Naked, seven of THE MAIMED step forward

      from somewhere like clockwork robots.  Their bodies are stumps.  Arms

      and legs are missing.  In their place are black artificial arms and legs

      which move in mechanical jerks.  In rank and file they march in front of

      the screen.

The Expressionists utilized startling visual images to shock audiences as well as to create a totally different type of theatre experience.  The visual imagery was an intrinsic element of the play that helped to deliver the message as much as the words did.

The first production of Transformation opened in Berlin on September 30, 1919 at Karlheinz Martin’s Tribune Theatre. This small theatre seated less than 300 audience members. It had a tiny stage and no act curtain to separate the world of the audience from the actors. Transformation was Martin’s first production in Berlin and he helped Expressionism to become an acceptable theatrical style. It quickly became a popular mode of theatre even though its themes usually revolved around political ideology.

Transformation played for 115 performances and it was enthusiastically received by its audiences.  The production was praised for its revolutionary staging techniques.  Martin’s staging of the actors who composed the ensemble was considered outstanding by the reviewers. Fritz Kortner played the role of Friedrich and even though he had been acting in Berlin since 1911, this role catapulted him to fame as one of Germany’s best-known actors. 

Toller was heralded as a genius and gained the status of the “artist as Messiah”.  But he did not see this production of his play.  After being released from prison in 1918, he became more actively engaged on behalf of the Socialist workers and their party.  He became an officer in the party.  As the result of his leadership role in establishing a Red Army and fomenting revolution, ten thousand marks were placed on his head. He was captured on June 6, 1919 and condemned for high treason.  Due to his reputation as a writer, he was not executed.  He was sentenced to prison and he spent most of his five year term in Niederschonenfeld prison.  During Toller’s years in prison he wrote several plays—Masse Mensch (Masses and Men, 1919), Die Rache des verhohnten Liebhabers (The Scorned Lover’s Revenge, 1920, a short puppet play), Die Maschinensturmer (The Machine Wreckers, 1920-21) Hinkemann (1921-22) and Der entfesselte Wotan (Wotan Unbound, 1923).  He was this productive despite having to spend 243 days without writing materials.  He never saw the initial production of any of these plays. He was released from prison in 1924.

Following its Berlin production, Transformation was later produced in other German cities: Hamburg and Stuttgart in 1920, Leipzig in 1924 and in Nuremberg (1926) there was an amateur production staged.  As of the late 1990’s there were translations of this play in seven languages; however, Cecil Davies mentioned there was no record of any non-German Transformation productions. Despite the lack of theatrical productions abroad, the play and the playwright generated a considerable amount of print in foreign newspapers particularly in the early years of the 1920s. 

Toller was well known throughout Great Britain and he visited many countries in Europe as well.  He traveled many miles and spend many hours speaking about his plays as well as political issues, particularly German writers who were incarcerated. Following the 1933 rise to power of Nazism, Toller’s books were among those publicly burned on May 10th. Since he was also Jewish and a proclaimed Socialist, on August 23, 1933 his German citizenship was revoked. He went to England.

Toller undertook a lecture tour in the United States and Canada during 1936-37.  He settled in New York. In 1939, he was suffering from a deep depression thought to be the result of hearing that his brother and sister were sent to a concentration camp as well as struggling himself with financial problems. However, there were individuals who believed that Toller’s suicide in May of 1939 was not merely the result of personal distress, but he was also seeing the collapse of the ideology of his youth: “Never again war!”

TRANSFORMATION by ERNST TOLLER

Ernst Toller (1893-1939) began writing his first play in 1917, after having served in the German army and then being discharged as “unfit for active service”.  In 1914 he enlisted in the First Bavarian Foot Artillery Regimen and he was a patriotic enthusiast of the war effort. He served on front-line duty, which he volunteered for, from March 1915 to May 1916. It was this experience that initially altered his political beliefs and led him to write Die Wandlung (Transformation), an anti-war drama.

Transformation is a unique antiwar drama, since it is a multi-topic play that goes beyond the issue of ceasing the senseless slaughter of mankind. This play begins with the traditional type of direct anti-war message.  The issue grows beyond the suffering inflicted by war until it condemns many forms of human suffering. Finally the play segues into improving human conditions by making a political commitment to Socialism.

During the time Toller was working on this play, he was also going through his own transformation. His transformation mirrors that of the play’s protagonist, Friedrich. In 1918 Toller strongly believed that a radical transformation of German society was about to occur. 

Toller stated in 1917 that he considered the early draft of Transformation as a political pamphlet. He said that before he even finished writing this play he handed out scene five, “The Hospital”, and scene six, “The Maimed”.  He also read these two scenes at strike meetings in Heidelberg and Berlin to help spread his anti-war activism. He continued to hand out “The Hospital” into the beginning of 1918.  His motivation was to continue working for peace and civil liberties.

Gustav Landauer’s manifesto, Call to Socialism, was published in 1911. Toller read this publication during the summer of 1917 and his political thinking began to expand beyond antiwar demonstrations. Landauer, (1870-1919) a significant German theorist on anarchism, believed that it was the duty of poets and thinkers to help the rest of the population understand the need for a new political reality. Landauer’s ideas were in harmony with those individuals connected to the Expressionism movement. Toller, who was already an advocate for Expressionism, readily accepted Landauer basic ideas. 

Toller’s physical participation into the burgeoning revolutionary movement came after meeting other revolutionaries. It was Kurt Eisner (1867-1919), a German politician and journalist, who convinced Toller to participate in the Munich munitions workers strike.  After Toller’s experience in Munich and while he was in prison for his strike related participation, he expanded the thesis of Transformation to embrace his new Socialistic ideology.

Cecil Davies in his book The Plays of Ernst Toller: A Revaluation discusses how Toller’s new political views are incorporated into the play’s progression. Toller presses his antiwar message through the first seven scenes of the play.  Scenes eight through ten focus on Friedrich becoming more human rather than serving merely as a symbol. The rest of the storyline, scenes eleven through thirteen, portrays Friedrich becoming a political speaker and motivator for others to implement social change.  Davies states that Toller’s “pattern by which social change takes place is that an unusually gifted individual undergoes some kind of personal ‘conversion’ which he transmits to the masses.”  This concept, Davies asserts, is derived directly from Landauer. So the reader/audience experiences Friedrich’s transformation as it occurs in the script. Therefore, Transformation, the antiwar play, is also drama as political action.

This play belongs to an additional theatre tradition. Toller divided his script into thirteen scenes.  Instead of having these scenes separated into acts, Toller used the medieval religious dramatic tradition of having the play divided into “Stations” for its major units of organization.  The term “Station” harkens back to The Stations of the Cross. The use of Station as a dramatic unit comes with various associations such as Christ connection to Station Drama. It is also connected to Christ’s progression towards an understanding of his earthly activities and his growth as a religious figure.  Transformation is divided into six Stations.  Each Station is designated by its number while each scene is also assigned a number and often a specific title such as “FIRST STATION, Second Scene, ‘Troop Trains’”.  So the reader/audience member sees Friedrich’s advancement toward his enlightenment and newly acquired activism as akin to a religious understanding.

There is one more organizational element related to the structure of the play to be considered. Transformation has “A Prologue, which can also be thought of as Epilogue.” This section is titled “Barracks of the Dead”.  The title makes sense once the characters are identified by name—War-Death, Peace-Death and Skeletons and the location is revealed. The time is Night and the location is a vast Military Graveyard. The character names, setting as well as time of night are common to German Expressionistic plays of this era. The time and setting are similar to the beginning of Fritz von Unruh’s play Ein Geschlecht (A Generation) that I discussed in Post 19.

 I plan to continue the discussion of Toller’s use of Expressionistic characteristics in my next Post.  There will also be information regarding the production history of Transformation.

NOTE: Die Wandlung was sometimes translated into English as Transfiguration; however, it is more commonly known today as Transformation.

REFERENCE:

Toller, Ernst. Plays One. Trans. & Ed. Alan Raphael Pearlman.

 London: Oberon Books, 2011.  

(The above citation relates to the copy of Transformation that I read.  The introduction to each one of the three plays is helpful as is the additional commentary following the script. Pearlman translated the German word Bild as “Picture” instead of Scene.  On page 35 he clearly explains his rationale.)