Gas I.

Fülszöveg

GAS I by GEORG KAISER
It could be hovering on the edge of tomorrow—a foretaste of a world that might be engulfed in totál destruction. Yet this play, with the two others that form a memorable trilogy, was conceived over forty years ago by the leading European dramatist of Expres-sionism, Georg Kaiser.
"Our voices could wake the wilderness—men's ears are deaf." So speaks the advocate of meekness and brotherly love as at the end he faces a decision to save or destroy mankind. Could disaster have been avoided ? It is essential that we know.
In Gas I the son of the "Billionaire" attempts to run his factory on idealistic principles. After a devastating explosion, he begs his workers to abandon production of the destructive gas. The Engineer, who speaks for the "system," and the Billionaire's Son strive for the workers' decision in a brilliant counterpoint of argument. The workers' choice is made.
The Coral gives the beginning of the answer in its account of the Billionaire driven... Tovább

Fülszöveg

GAS I by GEORG KAISER
It could be hovering on the edge of tomorrow—a foretaste of a world that might be engulfed in totál destruction. Yet this play, with the two others that form a memorable trilogy, was conceived over forty years ago by the leading European dramatist of Expres-sionism, Georg Kaiser.
"Our voices could wake the wilderness—men's ears are deaf." So speaks the advocate of meekness and brotherly love as at the end he faces a decision to save or destroy mankind. Could disaster have been avoided ? It is essential that we know.
In Gas I the son of the "Billionaire" attempts to run his factory on idealistic principles. After a devastating explosion, he begs his workers to abandon production of the destructive gas. The Engineer, who speaks for the "system," and the Billionaire's Son strive for the workers' decision in a brilliant counterpoint of argument. The workers' choice is made.
The Coral gives the beginning of the answer in its account of the Billionaire driven to murder so that he can find a new identity. Gas II follows to the inevitable end the impact of fanatical tech-nological thinking on humán beings as the forces of "capitalism" and "socialism" face each other in a war that leads to one decision: whether to use the "ultimate weapon."
These plays strangely foreshadow our own age. As in the "Theater of the Absurd" of the 1960's Kaiser's stage is bare, ex-cept for a few props; the characters are without individual psycho-logical complexity, symbols rather than creatures of flesh and blood. But Kaiser's theater, unlike the "absurd" of our day, does not shake its fist at a "meaningless universe." It searches out the terrifying truth about the compulsions of power in modern society
The Coral, Gas I and Gas II are intellectually and dramatically complete in themselves. Whichever one the reader picks up first will make him want as well the other two. Vissza