Synopses & Reviews
These two plays are set in the period of roaring inflation that caused so much suffering to the German people after the First World War. In Sladek, we see how social conditions can lead people to desperate action and violence, opening the road for dictators and fascists. Written just as the Nazis came to power, A Sexual Congress predicts with frightening accuracy the cycle of violence that was to spread throughout Europe.
Synopsis
Includes the plays Italian Night and Tales from the Vienna Woods
Written in 1930s Europe, these plays describe the decay of a society haunted by inflation and succumbing to a rising tide of fascism. In Hampton's translation of Tales from the Vienna Woods (staged at the RNT in 1977) von Horv th portrays, with compassion and impartiality, the interplay between individual selfishness and the pressures of a society in crisis. Italian Night, in this new translation by Meredith Oakes, has a group of friends deciding to hold a republican 'Italian Night', only to discover the fascists have chosen the same day for a German Day parade.
Synopsis
These two plays portray the losers in what von Horvath calls "the gigantic battle between the individual and society."
Table of Contents
Italian night / translated by Meredith Oakes - Tales from the Vienna woods / translated by Christopher Hampton and originally published: London : Faber, 1977.