SPEEC Play Reading Series: "Masses Man" and "Hinkemann" by Ernst Toller

Join us for the eighth play reading of Theatre Makers' SPEEC Play Reading Series of plays with social, political, economic, and environmental change (SPEEC) themes.

We'll read English translations of two German plays by Ernst Toller, online this time due to the pandemic:

• "Masses Man" chronicles the tragic attempt of a woman worker to effect a mass revolution among her fellow workers.

• "Hinkemann" is about a conscript injured in war.

Ernst Toller was an expressionist playwright who served in 1919 for six days as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic (not Russian!), after which he became the head of its army. He was imprisoned for five years for his part in the armed resistance by the Bavarian Soviet Republic to the central government in Berlin.

Toller wrote both of these plays in prison at the beginning of the German revolution from 1919 to 1921 and the premiere of "Masses Man" took place in Berlin in 1921.

In 1933 Toller was exiled from Germany after the Nazis came to power. He did a lecture tour in 1936–1937 in the United States and Canada, settling in California for a while before going to New York. He joined other exiles there. Struggling financially and depressed at learning his brother and sister had been sent to a concentration camp in Germany, he committed suicide in May 1939.

We will read these plays in hopes of revolutionary changes in societies worldwide!

Warning: these plays include portrayals of capitalism, war, resistance, and revolution.

Please RSVP and answer the question with your email address so that we can send you PDF files of the scripts.

Please arrive on time and be prepared to read either just the first play, which will take about 1.5 hours, or both of the plays, which will take approximately 3 hours.

Everyone is welcome to read a part. If you'd prefer a particular role, please let us know in response to the RSVP question.