German expressionism is familiar to British audiences from the films of Fritz Lang, F W Murnau and G W Pabst in the 1920’s; but the chance to see an actual German expressionistic play of that period is rare. Georg Kaiser’s parable, an indictment of materialism and the moral bankruptcy of a nation, is perhaps the most famous example of the genre. Written in 1912, it was not performed until 1917 when Max Reinhardt directed it. The Nazis thought Expressionism degenerate and banned it when they came to power in 1933. They didn’t like Kaiser’s plays and he went into exile in Switzerland.
Adam Godley is good casting physically for the humdrum bank clerk, a bespectacled automaton, who absconds with 600,000 German marks, out of lust as much as greed. He searches for fulfilment on the cycling race track, in a brothel (with crude cabaret) and finally at a Salvation Army rally, distributing largesse to anybody and everybody, as he goes. The characters are all larger-than-life, cartoon figures, caricatures. The opening scene in Melly Still’s production sets the style with the right sort of mechanical energy. The snowy fields, through which the hero staggers, are created with the actors billowing white sheets. But I wish Melly Still and her designer, Soutra Gilmour, had taken more inspiration from Georg Grosz and Otto Dix and from the photos of the original stage and film versions. The production gets less and less expressionistic and more and more boring in the second half. I sat there wondering if Kaiser’s The Burgers of Calais and his Gas trilogy were any better and worth reviving.