KRAUS’S THE LAST DAYS OF MANKIND CONTINUED—from previous post

Two of the leading German experimental theatre directors, Max Reinhardt (1873-1943) and Erwin Piscator (1893-1966), each wanted to present The Last Days of Mankind. However, Karl Kraus could not be persuaded to allow a production of the play, since he desired to continue his public readings from the play.

While a student in Vienna during 1924-25, Elias Canetti’s (1905-1994) attended Kraus’s readings from the play. In his book titled The Torch in my Ear, Canetti discusses his reactions to these readings.

When he read aloud from it, you were simply flabbergasted.  No one stirred in

the auditorium, you didn’t dare breathe.  He read all parts himself, profiteers

and generals, the scoundrels and the poor wretches who were the victims of

the war—they all sounded as genuine as if they were standing in front of you.

       Anyone who heard Kraus didn’t want to go to the theater again, the theatre was

       so boring compared with him.

In the early 1890’s Kraus was interested in an acting career, but instead he pursued journalism and literature.  In 1910 he presented his first public reading from his own writings. By the time Canetti saw Kraus present a reading from The Last Days of Mankind, Kraus had perfected his presentational style. In the New York Times July 29, 1974 article titled “Vienna: Tributes on Birthday of Three Famous Sons” mentions that in 1936, the year of Kraus’s death, “he gave his 700^th lecture reading.”

I read that Bertolt Brecht staged the Epilogue of The Last Days of Mankind in Berlin and Vienna during 1930. I have neither been able to verify this event nor discover any details relating to such a theatrical production. However, from perusing Bertolt Brecht: A Literary Life by Stephen Parker (2014), I have learned that Kraus believed in Brecht’s genius and defended his writing talent numerous times. Parker mentions that Kraus also treated “Brecht as his chosen son.” Given Kraus’s belief in Brecht’s talents, he could have permitted Brecht to direct the Epilogue. This 1930 production would have been the only version of the play staged during Kraus’s lifetime.

The Last Days of Mankind premiered in Vienna during the 1964 Vienna Festival. This production was a major undertaking that took the combined efforts of Egon Hilbert (1899-1968), the director of the festival, Leopold Lindtberg (1902-1984) the producer of the drama and Heinrich Fischer (1896-1974), Kraus literary executor and editor of the Kosel edition of Kraus’s works.  This team created a revised script that had forty-two scenes out of the original 209. This version was staged at the Theater an der Wien. The London Times Special Correspondent reviewed the production and believed that this version “weakened the impact of the play” since the trio selected the “colourful, comic scene to the scene that is a bitter indictment.” He credited the production as lavish, but the reviewer believed it lacked the horrifying events of the war.

In December 1974 when Hans Hollmann (1933-    ) directed The Last Days of Mankind, he staged it in the lobby of the Basel Theatre (Switzerland). To view this entire German language production, the audience had to attend the theatre for two consecutive evenings. A shorter version of this production was presented in September 1975 at the Berlin Theatre Festival. Five years later, Hollmann again cast Kraus’s play and remounted it for an appearance at the 1980 Vienna Festival. Hollmann’s work has been praised in Austria where he received the Josef Kainz Medal for acting and years later the Goethe Award (2006).

Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre in Scotland presented Robert David MacDonald’s (1930-2004) English translation and his production of The Last Days of Mankind. It was first presented in 1983 by this theatre company at the Edinburgh Festival and later in Glasgow. MacDonald presented his fifteen hour version of this drama with a cast of thirty-one actors. The Stage reviewer J. R. K. Reyner claimed this was the first production of the play in the British Isles. This reviewer also considered the presentation to be an “excellent production.”

In December 1999 the British Broadcasting Corporation presented a four hour radio version of The Last Days of Mankind based on MacDonald’s English translation. Giles Pollock Havegal (1938-   ) who was serving as artistic director for Glasgow Citizens’ Theatre, directed this radio production with actors from the Citizens’ Theatre playing more than 100 characters.  The BBC version of The Last Days of Mankind was widely acclaimed and as a result some British critics even hailed it as “the greatest drama written this century.” 

The Stage, in its November 28, 1991 issue, mentions a London production of The Last Days of Mankind. This production was presented at the Embassy Theatre in London. The Embassy belongs to the Central School of Speech and Drama.  The production was presented in edited form and directed by Stephen Rayne. It was praised in the short article as a “competent and pleasing production.”

In January 2010 the Los Angeles Times reported that the Long Beach Opera presented “readings from Karl Kraus’ satiric antiwar drama The Last Days of Mankind.” This was part of a program that included Robert Kurka’s opera The Good Soldier Schweik. This California presentation may be the only time Kraus’s play had any recognition on stage in the United States.

Since the appearance of the Bridgham and Timms English translation of The Last Days of Mankind (2015), I have found two productions of the Epilogue that were staged in the United Kingdom.

It makes sense to present the Epilogue alone since it is a self-contained drama that sums up the arguments of the entire play. It captures Kraus’s sense of greedy war profiteers, unleashed human passions, rampant acts of violence and the general upheaval caused by war as well as its unplanned comedic moments.

To my knowledge the most recent production of The Last Days of Mankind was created in London by Time Zone Theatre Company. This production of the Epilogue was scheduled for a four week run during September/October 2014 at the Tristan Bates Theatre. The script was an abridged version of the Bridgham and Timms translation. The director of the production was Pamela Schermann.

The Last Days of Mankind with its abundance of documented German and Austrian events and attitudes provides significant information related to World War One. It is also an impressive theatre piece that deserves attention in today’s world. 
 

NOTE: Helmut Qualtinger (1928-1985) a Viennese actor, began in the 1970’s to perform recital tours in which he included excerpts from The Last Days of Mankind. Since his recitals were well attended, he recorded some of his readings including several from Kraus’s play.

                                                    

ERNST TOLLER’S HINKEMANN

Heinrich George in the Berlin premier on 11.4.1924 in the Volksbühne, Theatre on Bülowplatz.

Ernst Toller (1893-1939) was a prisoner in the Bavarian fortress of Niederschonefeld, serving a five year term, when he wrote Hinkemann during the year of 1921-1922. The four plays he wrote while in prison were staged throughout Europe, Russia, Great Britain and the United States during Tollers’s years of confinement.  He was an internationally recognized playwright when he was released from prison on July 16, 1924.

Hinkemann is a play about a World War One German soldier’s life after he was wounded. In order to save his life, the surgeon emasculated Adam Hinkemann. He returned to civilian life as a lost individual in a hostile environment.  Hinkemann is faced with his fear of losing his young wife’s love and consideration while being confronted with poverty and political turmoil. 

Hinkemann is unusual in several ways. The drama combines some traits of expressionism with a modified realistic style. The genre of the play was in question until Dorothea Klein’s study in 1968-69 made the definitive case for its classification as a tragedy.

This three-act play is divided into scenes only in acts two and three. Toller’s wanted the scenery to “suggest” the locations of each scene rather than realistically representing them. Act One suggests a working-class kitchen-living room. Hinkemann, a kind and caring man, struggles to establish a relationship with his wife Greta. He does not want her to stay with him out of pity. He fears that she will ridicule him due to his condition. Their friend Paul comes to visit. When Hinkemann leaves to find work, Paul seeks Greta's affection.

Act Two, Scene 1 suggests the outside of a caravan for a traveling side-show. Hinklemann, is hired by the Showman who plans to use him in a repulsive, bloody side-show routine.  Scene 2 displays Greta disloyalty to Hinkemann.  Scene 3 suggests the noisy side-show. Hinkemann  stands on the platform wearing flesh-colored tights while his act is touted by the Showman.  Unbeknownst to Hinkemann, Greta sees him and laughs. Scene 4 suggests a small working-class bar.  Hinkemann learns that Greta saw him at the side-show and laughed. This information crushes Hinkemann.

Act Three, Scene 1 places a distraught Hinkemann on a street that same evening. He sees himself surrounded by a world of insensitive and cruel individuals. Scene 2 has a feverish Hinkemann return home. He waits for Greta. When she appears, she claims to regret her previous reaction. This play ends in death for the protagonist and his spouse.

Hinkemann addresses how ridicule can isolate a man in a world where no one cares about another individual.  Toller depicted Germany after World War One as a cruel environment. The character of Hinkemann reflects some of Toller's own disillusionment with human beings. This was a daring play for its time.

The first production of Hinkemann was staged at the Old Theater/Altes Theater in Leipzig. The play’s title was Hinkemann, the German (Der deutsche Hinkemann) and it opened on September 19, 1923. This production was staged by Alwin Kronacher (1880-1951) a significant theatre personality who staged new expressionistic plays.  Toller’s play drew rave reviews for the play and the playwright. The production ran for about fifty performances. It was a success and there was no comment about the play’s subject-matter being inappropriate.

At least three other productions were staged in German cities during 1923—Altenberg, Karlsruhe and Glauchaud.  Several Russian productions were also mounted—Moscow during autumn of 1923 and Leningrad in December, 1923 are two of the major ones. Toller’s script was translated into Russian in 1923 by Adrian Piotrovski (1898-1937) and it was published in Petrograd.

On January 17, 1924 a production of Hinkemann opened in Dresden, Germany. This date marked a turning point for the critical acceptance of this play. The play was suddenly considered to be a political statement against the current government.  Rioters disrupted the play's performance    The Dresden reviews concentrated primarily upon the disturbance and barely focused on the play itself.  However, this event called the “Dresden Scandal” changed the favorable reception of the play in Germany, but it did not stop additional productions. Cecil Davies mentions in his book The Plays of Ernst Toller (1996) that there were eleven German productions of Hinkemann in the year 1924. 

When Toller was released from prison, he went to Berlin to attend a special performance of Hinkemann played in his honor. It was the first time he saw one of the four plays he wrote while in prison performed on a stage. The Berlin production with Heinrich George (1893-1946) playing the role of Hinkemann opened to the public on November 4, 1924. The production was a success and Heinrich George became known for the role of Hinkemann.

During the rest of the 1920's, many of the innovative German theatre directors of the time produced Hinkemann. Edwin Piscator (1893-1966) who founded the Piscator-Buhne Theatre in Berlin, staged a production of Hinkemann.  It opened in March of 1928. Hinkemann continued to resonate for many German theatre practitioners and audience members despite the negative criticism it received from many critics. However, Hinkemann was not produced again in Germany after all of Toller's plays were publically burned by followers of Hitler during spring of 1933.

Hinkemann was first produced in England on June 6, 1924 at the Prince of Wales Theatre. It was titled Red Laughter (Der Deutsche Hinkemann; or Brokenbrow). The production was mounted by the Yiddish Art Theatre of America who was on a tour of Europe. The play was performed as a cockney English version. Maurice Schwartz (1889-1960) founder of the Yiddish Art Theatre in New York City, also produced a Yiddish version on Broadway at the Forth-ninth Street Theatre in December of 1931. For this production he used the title Bloody Laughter (Hinkemann) and it ran for thirty-five performances.

The first production of Hinkemann created by a company of British actors was presented at the Gate Theatre in London. This theatre group was established in 1925 and the founder was Peter Godfrey (1899-1970) who was committed to presenting contemporary and classic foreign plays. Hinkemann opened on May 24, 1926.  The English translation of the script was done by Vera Mendel.  This company presented the play again on February 3, 1933. Peter Godfrey played the role of Hinkemann.

Hinkemann has sporadically continued to be staged. Two relatively recent productions that I read about were staged by the Slovenian National Theatre in Ljubijana, Slovenia and the Grand Theater Company in Paris, France.  There is a short YouTube video dated September 24, 2014 that features the moments from the Slovenian National Theatre’s production. The Grand Theatre production was adapted and directed by Christine Letailleur. It was presented in Rennes, France in October, 2014 and in Paris during March/April, 2015 at La Colline-National Theatre.

NOTES:

          1.     The original script in German is different from the English translation by

           J. M.Ritchie that I read. This version is included in German Expressionism, a series

           edited by J.M. Ritchie titled Vision & Aftermath: Four Expressionist War Plays 

           and published in 1969.

2.   If you are interested in reading about another World War One play by Toller,
     please see my August 15, 2015 post titled TRANSFORMATION by
     ERNST TOLLER.

3. Image source:  http://www.akg-images.co.uk/archive/-2UMDHUHTHX4Y.html