After Expressionism

<p>After Expressionism had run its feverish course its foremost exponent Georg Kaiser (1878-1945) - <em>The Burghers of Calais</em> <em>From Morn to Midnight</em> <em>Gas </em>- proved equally adept at the lighter fare demanded by post-war audiences. Of some nine hundred comedies premièred in the Weimar era his <em>Pulp Fiction</em> was an early triumph often revived and played now as parody of a contagious literary genre now as critique of Old World pieties. The New Woman emerged even more clearly towards the end of the 'Roaring Twenties' in <em>Clairvoyance </em>though now also as antagonist from whose vampish sophistication the loving wife emancipates both self and wayward husband. Between these two comedies in <em>One Day in October</em> (acclaimed especially in Gustav Gründgens's gripping production) focus shifts to psychological wrestling in deadly earnest over the parentage of a child. A parallel dilemma underlies the compelling plot rising tension and searing climax of <em>Agnete - </em>an uncanny precursor of the 'Heimkehrer' literature inspired by soldiers and captives returning home after 1945. This was indeed a fitting play to mark the rebirth of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949. Kaiser had died in exile though not before taking leave like Prospero with another wry comedy <em>The Gordian Egg</em>.</p>