Theatre
Herzog Theodor von Gothland
Not translated into English
Christian Dietrich Grabbe · 1827
Opening lines
Biörn
Wie? Seh ich recht? Die Küstenwachen fliehn!
What? Do I see aright? The coastguards flee!
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from zeno.org
Synopsis
Sweden is at war with the pagan Finns, commanded by the African Berdoa, and is counting on Duke Theodore of Gothland. Berdoa, who wants to avenge his own servitude on Europe, makes him his instrument: when one of the duke's brothers dies, he makes him believe that the other, the king's chancellor, is guilty. Gothland sets himself up as an avenger, kills this brother and goes over to the Finns, then severs one by one the ties that bound him to his wife, his aged father and his son.
Context
Begun at school and completed in 1822, the play appeared in 1827 in Frankfurt, from Hermann, in the two volumes of Dramatische Dichtungen in which its author added to his dramas an essay on “Shakspearo-Manie”. It shocked by its nihilism and its bloody scenes, even though Tieck and Heine acknowledged the young author's talent. Berdoa owes much to the Aaron of Titus Andronicus, and Byron's influence can also be read in it. The first performance took place only in 1892, at the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna; in his lifetime, Grabbe saw only one of his plays staged, Don Juan und Faust, in Detmold in 1829.
Who it is for
Five acts, with no published French translation to our knowledge; the German text can be read online on Zeno.org.
Prizes and reception
Long considered unplayable, the play was not staged in French until 2016, by Bernard Sobel at the Théâtre de l'Épée de Bois, in a translation by Bernard Pautrat.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.