Trips back in time are featured in this entry to my Seclusion Smörgåsbord series. A historically important play from 1912, a one act comedy from 1921 and the first in a four part adaptation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle from the 1870’s.
Professor Bernhardi (Schaubüehne, Berlin, Germany)
Viennese dramatist Arthur Schnitzler’s play Professor Bernhardi was first performed in Berlin in 1912. It was banned in his home country until after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a result of World War I. Billed as a “comedy in five acts,” the play addresses antisemitism and Austrian-Jewish identity.
Thomas Ostermeier directed this adaptation with a clinical setting of all white walls and a couple of doors. Doctor Bernhardi gets into an argument with a priest who arrives to administer last rites to a dying girl. She has had a botched abortion and is nearing death. Bernhardi argues that the young woman is feeling optimistic about her chances and does not want to upset her. As the two argue, the girl dies.
From this beginning, the play revolves around office politics and polarizing rhetoric. A new position at the medical center becomes a battleground between a highly qualified Jewish candidate and a less competent Christian one. Bernhardi takes a stand which becomes a feast for public opinion and governmental investigation.
The messages in this play reflect many ideologies we hear today. “Christian beliefs should be aligned with science” is one of them. Regarding a fierce determination to cling to the truth, one character muses “I bet you wouldn’t be so stubborn about your convictions if we still sent people to the pyre for their convictions.”
This play and this production is a riveting three hour meditation on the outwardly spoken anti-Semitic environment which would shape European politics of the twentieth century and culminate in the Holocaust. Jörg Hartmann’s performance in the title role grounds the play in naturalistic realism. As a result, the progression of events swirling around him seem even more frightening and claustrophobic. Offensive personalities are exquisitely drawn to showcase the hypocrisy of mankind.
I watched this depiction of vacuous self-righteous moralists with an eye on America (and the world) today. A century later we are overflowing with similarly crafted politically corrupt opportunists that live in support of themselves above all else.
Schaubüehne is regularly streaming past productions, some of which contain English subtitles. The next two are The Raft (Flotten) on June 17th and Angélica (una tragedia) on June 18th.
Ever Young (Metropolitan Playhouse)
On Saturday evenings, Metropolitan Playhouse live streams readings of short one act plays from the theatrical past. Playwright Alice Gerstenberg has been featured a few times already. Ever Young is a 1921 comedy about four women who meet at the Royal Poinciana Hotel in Palm Beach. Has it really been fifty years since these women were debutantes?
Widows and divorcees meet to share stories and criticize as only the self-satisfied elite class can do. The play is both sharp-tongued and rueful. They sneer at the debutantes today who have a “supercilious air” with their “smoking in public.” Later in life, some are reflective about choices they might have made differently. Others stand by their rigid adherence to the roles as they were supposed to be performed. This play was a nice time capsule about women and their reflections on evolving (and stagnant) attitudes towards life.
The Metropolitan Playhouse weekly readings and other events can be found on their homepage.
Der Ring Gott Farblonjet: Act I (Theatre at St. John’s)
Camp master Everett Quinton, the widower of queer-theater icon Charles Ludlam and the custodian of his Ridiculous Theater Company directs and stars in a live-streamed reading of Der Ring Gott Farblonjet. This epic 1977 send-up of Wagner’s Ring Cycle is divided into four acts. Act I is the first part called Das Rheingold.
Woglinde, Welgunde and Flosshilde are the fish creatures/sisters who guard the gold so that no one will steal the river. A golden light spreads through the water. That’s the “rheingold” of the title. The sisters “svim in its glow.” The send up is firmly tongue in cheek. Of course the gold is stolen. If the precious metal could be fashioned into a ring, one could rule the world. A woman notes that if she were in possession of such a ring, she “might be able to keep her husband home at night.”
While this company is well-known for campy fun, this reading was not excessively so. The semi-serious presentation which clearly has a wink-wink sensibility was a fun diversion. There are three more parts which will be presented on successive Sunday evenings in June in celebration of Pride month. Since I am not an opera buff, this is my chance to enjoy Wagner’s opus in perhaps its most ridiculous incarnation.
Act II of Der Ring Gott Farblonjet will be streamed on Sunday, June 14th on the Facebook page of St. John’s Lutheran Church in New York City.
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