Two Plays of Weimar Germany: Youth Is a Sickness and Criminals (Northwestern World Classics) - Softcover

Ferdinand Bruckner (author)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810137720 ISBN 13: 9780810137721

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 2018

Synopsis

If a theater-goer in Weimar Berlin were asked to name the best living German playwright, the answer would not be Bertolt Brecht or Georg Kaiser or Arnolt Bronnen.  It would be Ferdinand Bruckner.  And if asked, who is this Bruckner?, the Berliner would be at a loss to give you any information.

In the late 1920s, the first two plays attributed to Bruckner, Youth Is a Sickness and Criminals, were “hot tickets,” but only gradually was the pseudonymous author identified.  Bruckner continues to be an understudied figure in the Weimar figure, and this updated translation of two of his most well-known plays will be the definitive version for scholars and readers interested in better understanding his legacy.

Youth Is a Sickness (1924) is an important document of the “lost generation” that grew up during the first World War, born in the aftermath of cataclysm, devoid of hope and ideals, lost in sex and drugs.

If Youth is a compact, claustrophobic study in juvenile derangement, Criminals (1926) is a panoramic survey of social interaction and legal injustice in the Weimar Republic.  Its format is highly original: a three-story apartment building and a Palace of Justice with four courtrooms, in which simultaneous action allows for ironic comment on the various cases.  The central example is a murder case in which fate allows a slick “lady’s man” to go to the gallows.  Others involve homosexual blackmail (the first commercially successful play to be so explicit), a failed double suicide, theft,  and abortion.

With an introduction and annotation by renowned theater and German scholar, Lawrence Senelick, these two plays will position Bruckner as a prime example of what we now call a “public intellectual,” a man whose life was devoted to reflecting on the fate of Germany, humane values, and the past, present, and future of a troubled century.  Like many of his contemporaries, he was excited by the possibility of the stage to address issues of war and peace, social and political problems, and the fate of contemporary youth with its lack of ideal and eternal nostalgia.

About this title

About the Author

Ferdinand Bruckner (born Theodor Tagger on 26 August 1891 in Sofia, Bulgaria) was an Austro-German writer and theatre manager. His father was an Austrian businessman and his mother a French translator. After the separation of his parents, he spent time in Vienna and Paris, and in Berlin where he began to study music. However, impressed by the Expressionist literary scene in Berlin, in 1916 he moved away from music and devoted himself to poetry. In the following years, he published several poetry collections and in 1917 he began the literary magazine Marsyas with texts from authors like Alfred Döblin and Hermanne Hesse. In 1922, he founded, in his real name, the Berlin Renaissance Theater, whose leadership he gave to Gustav Hartung in 1928. In 1929 and 1930 he released the pieces Krankheit der Jugend (Pains of Youth) and Elisabeth von England (Elizabeth of England) using the pseudonym Ferdinand Bruckner. After the success of these works, he revealed their authorship, although he changed his name permanently to Bruckner in 1946. In 1933 he emigrated to Paris and worked on the anti-fascist play Die Rassen. In 1936, he moved to the USA, although he achieved little success there. Twenty years after his flight from Germany in 1953 he returned to Berlin where he worked as an advisor to the Schiller Theater. He died in Berlin on 5 December 1958.

Laurence Senelick is Fletcher Professor of Drama and Oratory at Tufts University. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard. His expertise is in Russian theatre and drama, history of popular entertainment, gender and performance, visual studies, history of directing, classical theory. Prof. Senelick is the author or editor of more than twenty-five books, the most recent being Soviet Theatre: A Documentary History; Stanislavsky: A Life in Letters; The American Stage: Writing on the American Theatre (Library of America) and A Historical Dictionary of Russian Theatre.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Two Plays of Weimar Germany

Youth Is a Sickness and Criminals

By Ferdinand Bruckner, Laurence Senelick

Northwestern University Press

Copyright © 2018 Ferdinand Bruckner
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-8101-3772-1

Contents

Introduction, by Laurence Senelick, 
Youth Is a Sickness: A Play in Three Acts, 
Criminals: A Play in Three Acts, 

CHAPTER 1

Youth Is a Sickness

* A Play in Three Acts *

CHARACTERS

MARIE DESIREE IRENE FREDER PETRELL ALT LUCY

The girls are all very young, the men somewhat older.

ACT I

[As in the other two acts, MARIE's room in a boardinghouse.]

SCENE 1

MARIE [at the door to the hallway]: You're going to make me late, Lucy.

LUCY [offstage]: Coming.

MARIE: Bring hot water.

[LUCY enters with a bucket.]

MARIE: You may go.

LUCY: You scrubbing floors?

MARIE [scrubs the floor; laughing]: Friday is my bachelorette party.

LUCY: A bachelorette party without a wedding.

MARIE [laughs]: Graduation is a kind of wedding.

[Bell rings.]

LUCY: Number 4 is calling for his breakfast.

[LUCY exits.]

MARIE [works; after a while]: Daisy. You still in bed?

DESIREE [from her room]: I'm washing.

MARIE [again at the door to the hallway]: Clean water for the windows. And a washrag.

LUCY [from the hallway]: Right away.

SCENE 2

[DESIREE comes out of the adjoining room.]

MARIE: Up so early?

DESIREE: Help me review. Here're the crib notes.

MARIE: What time do you go on?

DESIREE: 10:00.

MARIE [carries on scrubbing]: Read.

DESIREE: Lungs. [She yawns, then stretches.] Why get up so early?

MARIE: You have stage fright?

DESIREE: At the moment I don't feel a thing. Fine. [Reads from notes.] Advanced cavernous tuberculosis. In principle, cavernous tuberculosis does not differ from ordinary progressive tuberculosis, the formation of caverns being only a secondary effect of caseation. [Sets down notes; laughs; puts her legs on the table.] That kid Irene wants to bet me she'll be a doctor first, even though she's two semesters behind me.

MARIE [still busy]: Where do caverns form?

DESIREE [reading again from notes]: In the areas of the primary infection, the upper bronchials, and specifically in the subapical zones. [Sets down notes.] A nasty sort.

MARIE: She's ambitious, but pretty.

DESIREE: A red-haired fish. She'll go far.

MARIE: The smaller caverns ...

DESIREE [reading again from notes]: The smaller caverns occur in relatively minor infections. [Sets down notes.] Freder's doing the maid.

MARIE [aghast]: Lucy?

DESIREE: I caught him slipping out of her room.

MARIE: The swine.

[DESIREE laughs.]

MARIE: That's why the girl's been depressed the last few days.

DESIREE [laughs]: And she limps.

MARIE: Lucy limps?

DESIREE: Whenever a woman gives in to a man who's her superior, she walks in a different way.

MARIE: You're kidding.

DESIREE: Out of fear. Pressure.

MARIE [cautiously]: What about you?

DESIREE: Oh, me. I've been over him a long time now.

MARIE: But you used to be mad about one another.

DESIREE [laughs]: Once upon a time ... He was the first to prove to me that a man can be good for something. Down to the fingertips. Have to do him justice: he's not only strong, he's a virtuoso. [Sighs.] But you can get fed up even with a virtuoso.

MARIE [simply]: You have to be in love, or else you always get fed up.

DESIREE: Love? You call that love, with your bland Boysie?

MARIE [laughs]: Not as bland as all that!

DESIREE [astonished]: No? I can't imagine he has any idea of what a woman needs.

MARIE [smiles]: What does a woman need?

DESIREE [approaches her]: Only women know what women need. [Affectionately] Marion! I call you Marion, my sister's name. Those were the holiest moments in my life: when the governess said good-night, put out the light and left. I would quickly creep into Marion's bed, we would lie there, pressed together, kissing, feeling the warmth of one another's body and knew what it was. It was the warmth of life. Not since I was a child have I ever felt it again.

MARIE [pulls loose]: Listen, I'm not Marion.

DESIREE [smiles]: Why not stay a child all one's life? [Embraces MARIE again.] Then you wouldn't be Marie, but my adorable little Marion.

MARIE: You miss your childhood?

DESIREE: The gentleness, the warmth, even the padded quilt we slept under.

MARIE [pulling loose]: Not me. The present is enough for me. [Goes back to work.]

DESIREE: Why are you drudging away like this?

MARIE: I want to celebrate my graduation in a really spotless room. You get your doctor's degree only once in your life. Student life is over — now things get serious.

DESIREE: Words. Don't kid yourself.

MARIE: If you live by them, they're more than just words.

SCENE 3

[LUCY enters.]

LUCY: I can help you now.

MARIE: Clean water for the windows and the mirror, please.

[LUCY exits with the bucket.]

DESIREE [laughs]: Exchange of glances with the rival.

MARIE: Give me a break.

DESIREE: Did you see the way she looked at me?

[LUCY returns with the bucket.]

LUCY: Here's the clean water.

MARIE: Thank you, my dear.

DESIREE: Is Herr Freder coming today?

[LUCY looks at her in fear and is silent.]

DESIREE: I'm just asking.

MARIE: The room will be spic-and-span, right?

LUCY [dully]: Yes.

DESIREE: You're a pretty girl.

[LUCY stares.]

MARIE: Make sure, Lucy, that everything sparkles today.

DESIREE: I'm serious, you have very pretty eyes.

MARIE: The only thing missing is music.

DESIREE: Somebody might fall in love with you, Fräulein Lucy.

MARIE: A bachelorette party absolutely has to have music.

LUCY [hurriedly]: The gentleman in number 9 is away. He has a gramophone. I'll go and get it.

MARIE: You're an angel.

[LUCY exits rapidly.]

DESIREE [shouting after her]: Be brave, Lucy. I'm your friend. — Poor dumb animal.

MARIE [washing the mirror]: Go on. What happens to the larger caverns?

DESIREE [reading again from notes]: The larger caverns complicate the diagnosis because they may be a reservoir of pus. [Sets down notes.] Did you see her limp?

MARIE: Symptoms?

DESIREE [reading again from notes]: The symptoms of caverns, which almost never occur at the same time, are (a) percussion, (1) tympanatic ring, (2) metallic sound.

MARIE: Metallic sound when?

DESIREE: Only when the wall of the cavern is smooth and taut.

MARIE: Top marks.

[DESIREE yawns.]

MARIE: Too much talent is a disease. You should cram a little for the fun of it.

DESIREE: If I could run away from the classroom as simply as I ran away from home at seventeen, it wouldn't be so hard to take. If there were in the classroom a strict papa waiting to horsewhip me. And a kind, sad, helpless mama, who bursts into tears when I disobey and then puts on a pearl necklace because she's off to a ball. If I could live that over again. Childhood is the only reason for living.

MARIE: I wouldn't want to relive my childhood. My parents hated one another.

DESIREE: So did mine. But, Marion, when you're little, you think it's funny. You figure it out later. When human beings hit seventeen, they should blow out their brains.

[MARIE laughs.]

DESIREE: After that, it's nothing but disappointments. To avoid them, I ran away. In silk stockings and a light wrap, and without a penny. [Pauses.]

[Meanwhile, MARIE is working on a dress.]

DESIREE: Your studies, your room, your dress, your lovers — you do it all yourself. Why try so hard?

MARIE: What you find superfluous, I find beautiful. That's the difference between us.

SCENE 4

[LUCY enters with a letter.]

LUCY: A gentleman. He's waiting outside.

DESIREE: You understand what I mean, Lucy? You're very pretty. Don't let anyone get the better of you.

MARIE [perusing the letter]: Quick. I wouldn't want Boysie to run into him.

[MARIE exits with LUCY.]

DESIREE [taking the letter]: A bill. Little Marion is deep in debt. [Goes into her room to get some banknotes and slips them rapidly into the envelope.]

MARIE [returns, happily]: I got rid of him. I gave Boysie a rococo writing desk. He says he'll write much more beautiful things on an antique desk. Inspiration, you understand ...

DESIREE [laughs]: You're an idiot.

MARIE [about to throw away the envelope, she discovers the banknotes; looks at DESIREE in surprise]: Was this you?

DESIREE [arms around MARIE's neck]: My little Marion.

MARIE: I won't take it.

DESIREE: Idiot. [Kisses her.] What? Because you're in love with a man? I have to keep an eye on you.

MARIE: You crazy child.

DESIREE: A child, like you, because I'm in love too. But with you.

MARIE: Let go of me.

DESIREE [kisses her passionately]: Only women can help each other out.

MARIE: Let go of me.

DESIREE [with a wild laugh]: I won't let go of you. I won't let go of you. If you promise me —

MARIE [pushes her away; pauses]: Let's not mention it again.

DESIREE [turning pale]: Marion.

MARIE: Poor devil. [She sits; begins to sew again.] So the symptoms of percussion: (2) metallic sound, (3) ... ?

[DESIREE looks at MARIE, then turns to the door to her room.]

MARIE: Your money, Daisy.

[DESIREE takes the money and her book, goes into her room.]

MARIE [watches her leave; pauses; goes to the door]: Shame on you, you silly child. [Tries to open it.] Open up. I didn't mean to hurt you. Open up, Daisy.

SCENE 5

[FREDER enters.]

MARIE [nervously]: You?

FREDER: I have to see Daisy. The door on the other side is locked.

MARIE: This one too.

FREDER: Ah?

MARIE: You talk about things that are none of your business.

[FREDER observes her.]

MARIE [nervously]: I've never enjoyed having you around. I have to be frank, Herr Freder. [She folds the dress.]

FREDER: The party dress?

[MARIE doesn't answer.]

FREDER: Congratulations.

[MARIE doesn't answer.]

FREDER: You've managed to do in ten semesters what it took me twenty-five to do. Hurray for you. A superwoman, alias Terminus technicus. And not unlike me.

[MARIE stares at him.]

[FREDER stands and laughs.]

MARIE [carefully]: An athlete.

FREDER [laughs]: "Where are the twentieth-century barbarians?" asks Nietzsche. And quite right too. Here I stand before you.

MARIE: You could exhibit yourself in a freak show.

[FREDER laughs even louder.]

MARIE: Go to hell.

FREDER: You'll be calling for me, sooner or later.

MARIE: You're drunk this early in the morning.

FREDER: And why not?

MARIE: An athlete.

FREDER: People can't do without me that easily. Ask Daisy.

MARIE: She despises you.

FREDER [friendly]: Not in bed, my angel.

MARIE: How dare you?

FREDER: First let darling Irene get her hooks into Boysie.

MARIE: Irene?

FREDER: That sterile little sow.

MARIE: What makes you think you can call Herr Petrell "Boysie"?

FREDER: I find him very attractive.

MARIE: Nobody asked you.

FREDER: A gentle dreamer, an adorable incompetent. When it comes to sex, he appeals to every woman's maternal instinct.

MARIE: Anything else?

FREDER: I'm open to anything. [Pulls a bottle of cognac out of his pocket.] Congratulations.

MARIE [nervous]: That wasn't necessary.

FREDER: Indeed. Why do we need doctors at all in this decadent age? The more disease there is, the more pointless the medics. But you still drudge away to save Baby Boy Blue's skin. And your own. There's a better remedy for despair than working.

MARIE: You can be sure I'll follow your example.

FREDER: You'll enjoy it.

MARIE: You're wrong.

FREDER: Anyone who celebrates a graduation —

MARIE: I want no gifts.

FREDER: You want no gifts from me.

[MARIE is silent.]

FREDER: I'll invite myself.

MARIE: We're not planning a party.

FREDER: All the better.

MARIE: You're very intrusive.

FREDER: You're very impolite, my fair lady.

MARIE: Perhaps.

FREDER: Why can't you stand me?

MARIE: You're right about that.

FREDER: It's, how shall I put it, dangerous.

[MARIE laughs.]

FREDER: Dangerous to hate a man so much.

MARIE: I don't hate you.

FREDER: That remains to be seen.

MARIE: You are very conceited.

FREDER [laughs]: For good reason.

SCENE 6

[DESIREE enters, wearing a hat.]

MARIE [quickly]: I'll walk you as far as the college. [She puts on her hat.]

[DESIREE smiles at FREDER.]

FREDER [laughs]: Her ladyship has an exam today?

DESIREE: You seem to be better.

FREDER: Give me your hand.

MARIE: I'll get my jacket.

DESIREE: He reeks of alcohol first thing in the morning.

FREDER: You stood me up.

DESIREE: The woman to console you is not far away.

FREDER: The consolation isn't worth a damn.

DESIREE: You miss me a little?

FREDER: No man can forget you.

MARIE [impatient, to FREDER]: Are you coming with us?

DESIREE [laughs]: For heaven's sake.

[DESIREE exits rapidly.]

[MARIE follows her.]

SCENE 7

[LUCY enters.]

FREDER [calmly]: Lucy.

LUCY [stands in place]: I have to take the water away.

FREDER: What water?

LUCY [points at the bucket]: That there, Herr Freder.

FREDER: Liar. [Sits to one side.] When you come for a bucket, you don't creep in. Come over here. What did you want?

LUCY [anxious and confused]: Herr Freder.

FREDER: Shall I tell you?

LUCY: You're hurting me.

FREDER: Where? I'm not touching you.

[LUCY is silent.]

FREDER: Where am I hurting you?

[LUCY weeps.]

FREDER: When you saw the two of them go out, you wanted a moment alone with me?

LUCY [quietly]: Yes.

FREDER: You should have the courage to take what you want. Not the bucket of water, that's a lie, but ...

LUCY: You're hurting me.

FREDER: Where, damn it? I'm not even touching you.

[LUCY slowly starts to sob.]

FREDER [more gently]: There, there, you're a good girl.

LUCY [stares at him and moves toward him]: Herr Freder.

FREDER [stroking her hair]: A good girl. [He draws her to him, pats her on the back.] You're my little bitch.

LUCY: Yes.

FREDER: My little beastie.

LUCY: Yes. Yes.

FREDER [lifts her head]: Look me in the face. [Pauses.] Bright eyes, lovely eyes.

LUCY [quietly]: Yes.

FREDER [kisses her eyes]: Did anyone ever tell you that?

LUCY [quietly]: No.

FREDER: Were you able to sleep last night?

[LUCY shakes her head no.]

FREDER: Why not?

LUCY [smiles]: Herr Freder.

FREDER [strokes her hair]: Love me?

LUCY [smiles]: Don't ask.

[FREDER draws her to him.]

LUCY [unresisting]: Herr Freder.

FREDER [kisses her]: Dear little girl.

LUCY [unresisting]: What if someone comes?

FREDER: I love you.

LUCY [kisses his hands, almost in tears]: Ah.

FREDER: Well, say something.

LUCY: I can't.

FREDER [quietly]: And this morning?

[LUCY nods.]

FREDER: Speak.

LUCY: I can't.

FREDER: You pulled it off?

[LUCY nods.]

FREDER: What?

LUCY [quietly]: Two rings.

FREDER: From Frau Schimmelbrot?

[LUCY nods.]

FREDER: She was still asleep?

[LUCY nods.]

FREDER: You're sure she didn't notice anything?

LUCY: Not a thing.

FREDER: Tell me.

LUCY: I can't.

FREDER: Where were the rings?

LUCY: In the dresser. The second drawer.

FREDER: You knew it already?

LUCY: That's where she always hides her jewels.

FREDER: You lit a candle?

LUCY: It was almost daylight.

FREDER: It was daylight already?

LUCY: There was light enough through the gaps in the blinds.

FREDER: You moved to the bed first?

LUCY: The way you told me to.

FREDER: How close?

LUCY: Up to the night table.

FREDER: What was on the night table?

LUCY: A glass of water and hairpins.

FREDER: Frau Schimmelbrot's?

[LUCY nods.]

FREDER: This kind of hairpin? [He loosens her hair.]

LUCY [unresisting]: Herr Freder.

FREDER [kisses her hair]: What an aroma.

LUCY: What if someone comes?

FREDER: Look me in the face. Lovely eyes. [He kisses her eyes.]

LUCY: Herr Freder.

FREDER: Where are the rings?

LUCY: Under my pillow.

FREDER: Someone might find them there.

LUCY [frightened]: You want me to bring them to you?

FREDER: Hide them in the dining room.

[LUCY nods.]

FREDER: Under the sideboard.

[LUCY nods.]

FREDER: Now get up.

[LUCY pulls loose from FREDER.]

FREDER: Tonight I'll come up to your room.

LUCY [panting]: Yes.

FREDER: We'll make love again.

LUCY: Yes.

FREDER: What kind of rings?

LUCY: I didn't look at them.

FREDER: Gold?

LUCY: I don't know.

FREDER: Frau Schimmelbrot didn't notice anything?

LUCY: She's still asleep.

FREDER: But suppose she notices?

LUCY: She rarely puts on her rings.

FREDER: One day she's bound to notice they're gone.

LUCY [indifferently]: I don't know. [Suddenly] Nobody will sus-pect you.

FREDER: What's it got to do with me?

LUCY [quickly]: Nothing. And even if they kill me, nobody will know about you.

FREDER: Why the hell bring me into it? You're the one who wanted to do it.

LUCY: I'm the only one who wanted to do it.

FREDER: What's it got to do with me? Fix your hair.

[LUCY does so.]

FREDER: I want to help you.

LUCY: Herr Freder.

[FREDER embraces her.]

LUCY [unresisting]: What if someone comes?

FREDER: Frau Schimmelbrot, I suppose.

LUCY: Herr Freder.

(Continues...)

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Edition details

• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810137720
• ISBN 13: 9780810137721
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 184