The Son (Hasenclever play)
The Son (German: Der Sohn) is a five-act Expressionist play by the German playwright Walter Hasenclever.[1] It was the first self-proclaimed, full-length Expressionist play to be produced, though its dramatic structure is more or less realistic.[2] It takes as its subject the conflict between the generations and a rejection of the world in general by the young.[3] It is a semi-autobiographical work.[4]
| The Son | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Walter Hasenclever |
| Characters | The Son The Tutor The Friend The Fräulein The Father Cherubim Von Tuchmeyer Prince Scheitel Adrienne Police Inspector |
| Date premiered | 1916 |
| Place premiered | Dresden |
| Original language | German |
| Subject | Intergenerational conflict |
| Genre | Expressionism |
| Setting | The present (1914), over 3 days |
It was written in 1912, first published in 1914, and first performed in 1916 at the Albert-Theater in Dresden, although Hasenclever had read the play at the literary cabaret Das Gnu in early 1914.[5] Ernst Deutsch played the Son to great acclaim.[6]
The play ends with the Son killing his father. He then "strides triumphantly over his father's corpse into a future full of glorious potential".[7]
References
- Marx (1997) and Rorrison (1998, 475).
- Kuhns (1997, 23, 96), Rorrison (1998, 475), and Wellwarth (2002, 258).
- Rorrison (1998, 475) and Schürer (1997b, xiii).
- Schürer (1997b, xiv).
- Kuhns (1997, 61, 94), Rorrison (1998, 475), Schürer (1997b, ix, xiv), and Wellwarth (2002, 258).
- Kuhns (1997, 89) and Schürer (1997b, xiv-xv).
- Kuhns (1997, 36).
- Sources
- Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43437-8.
- Hasenclever, Walter. 1994. Der Sohn. Ein Drama in fünf Akten. Nachw. v. Michael Schulz. Stuttgart: Reclam. ISBN 3-15-008978-6.
- Kuhns, David F. 1997. German Expressionist Theatre: The Actor and the Stage. New ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006. ISBN 978-0-521-03522-4.
- Marx, Henry, trans. 1997. The Son. By Walter Hasenclever. In Schürer (1997a, 82-145).
- Rorrison, Hugh. 1998. "Hasenclever, Walter." In Banham (1998, 475).
- Schürer, Ernst, ed. 1997a. German Expressionist Plays. The German Library ser. vol. 66. New York: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-0950-8.
- ---. 1997b. Introduction. In Schürer (1997a, vii-xxi).
- Wellwarth, George E. 2002. "Expressionism." In The Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama. Ed. John Gassner and Edward Quinn. Mineola, NY: Dover. 256-261. ISBN 978-0-486-42064-6.