Masse Mensch by Ernst Toller

MASSES AND MAN

A FRAGMENT OF THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION

OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

by Ernst Toller

in a new translation

by Nicholas Johnson

©2008 Nicholas Johnson

[email protected]

DEDICATION

for the new translation and production

for

Géza von Molnár

1932 - 2001

Weltrevolution.

Gebärerin des neuen Schwingens.

Gebärerin der neuen Völkerkreise.

Rot leuchtet das Jahrhundert

Blutige Schuldfanale.

Die Erde kreuzigt sich.

to the proletariats

PLAYERS

Working Men and Women

The Nameless

Officer

Priest

Man (the Official)

A Woman (Sonja Irene L.)

FIGURES OF THE DREAM PICTURES

A Woman (Sonja)

The Guide

Bankers

The Official

Sentries

Prisoners

Shadows

(The third, fifth, and seventh pictures in

visionary dream-abstracts.)

FIRST PICTURE

Back room of a workman’s tavern.

On whitewashed walls insignia of veterans’ clubs and portraits of

heroes of the masses. In the middle a clumsy table, around which a

woman and the workers sit.

FIRST WORKER

Leaflets are distributed.

We meet in the great hall. —

Early tomorrow the factories close.

The masses are in ferment.

Tomorrow is decisive.

Are you ready, Comrade?

THE WOMAN

I am.

With every breath my strength grows—

How I feel this hour,

When heart’s blood becomes word and word becomes action.

Before, I was paralyzed — clenching my hands together

With fury and shame and anguish.

The wicked papers bawl of victory

And a million fists seize me...

A million voices bray: It’s your fault that we die!

Yes, every horse with trembling and foaming flanks

Dumbly accuses me — accuses. —

If tomorrow I sound the trumpet of the Judgment

If my conscience surges through the hall—

Is it still I, who will proclaim the strike?

Mankind calls strike, Nature calls strike!

It is as if the dog who leaps to greet me

As I enter my house barks, strike!

As if the gushing river sprays forth, strike!

My knowledge is so strong. The masses

Resurrect themselves. They will be

The armies of humanity,

And with a mighty gesture, they will raise

An invisible cathedral of peace.

The red flag...Flag of dawn,

Who carries it forward?

SECOND WORKER

You! They follow you.

Silence glimmers.

THE WOMAN

If only our agents can be quiet!

You think the police know nothing?

What if the troops surround the hall?

REHEARSAL DRAFT 03.04.08 MASSES & MAN 1

FIRST WORKER

The police know nothing. And if they know something,

They don’t know our true goal.

Once the masses fill the hall

They are too great a flood.

The police aren’t risking full deployment;

Their flush of power is eaten by corrosion

The regiments are on our side —

Soldier’s Councils everywhere!

Tomorrow is decisive, Comrade.

A knock at the door.

FIRST WORKER

Betrayed!

SECOND WORKER

They must not take you.

FIRST WORKER

Only one door!

THIRD WORKER

Through the window!

FIRST WORKER

You’ll come out in the light!

THE WOMAN

So near the battle...

The knock is louder. The door opens. THE MAN, collar up, comes in,

looks quickly around, raises his bowler.

THE WOMAN

A...friend and nothing to fear...

You come to me, you find me.

THE MAN

Good evening.

(Quietly:) Please do not introduce me.

Can I speak to you?

THE WOMAN

Comrades...

WORKERS (variously)

Good night. Until tomorrow.

THE WOMAN

Good night — Until tomorrow!


THE MAN

It will be clear to you

I do not come here as a helper.

THE WOMAN

Forgive my momentary dream.

THE MAN

Threatened honour forced me here.

THE WOMAN

Am I the cause? Strange.

Has the vote been taken? Does the majority

Threaten to oust you from its ranks?

THE MAN

Please, do not jest.

The considerations which you flout I must obey.

For me the strict code of honour remains...

THE WOMAN

Stamping you all to formulae.

THE MAN

Submission, demanding our self-discipline.

You do not mark my words.

THE WOMAN

I see your eyes.

THE MAN

Do not confuse me.

THE WOMAN

You... You...

THE MAN

Your urge to social action

Can find an outlet in our circles.

For instance: Homes for illegitimate children.

Even your so-called comrade workers

Despise unmarried mothers.

THE WOMAN

Go on... go on...

THE MAN

You are not free in this business.

THE WOMAN

I am free...


THE MAN

I deserve some slight consideration,

If not in your judgment, then in your tact.

THE WOMAN

I have consideration only for the work.

Listen to me. I serve them, and I must serve them.

THE MAN

Let me dissect your motives.

You wish for external actions.

Far be it from me to say

This wish is anything but noble.

THE WOMAN

How you hurt me with every word you utter...

You...you...

You speak of my wishes?

I know...this abyss opens between us...

No idle wish has transformed my fate,

But need...

Need out of my deepest human richness.

Need, you hear me? Necessity!

Not mood, a game of boredom, but

Need to be human moves me.

THE MAN

Need? Have you a right

To speak of need?

THE WOMAN

Husband...let me...

I hold your head

I kiss your eyes.

You...speak no more.

THE MAN

I don’t wish to torment you—

This place ———— Can no one overhear us?

THE WOMAN

Even if a comrade hears us—

They need no code of honour to be considerate.

Oh, if only you could understand them,

Sense the slightest trace of their need,

A need that must be the same as ours!

You all have humiliated them,

And you have abased yourselves.

You are your own executioners...

Hold back the pity in your eyes!

I am not neurotic,

I am not sentimental.


Because I am not, I belong to them.

You set aside a few miserable hours for social works,

Appeasing your vanity and weakness.

My comrades would blush for you,

Unless they laugh out loud,

As I laugh now!

THE MAN

Then you want to know the truth?

They know. The secret service knows—

Wife, I have sworn allegiance to the State—

The head of personnel is well-informed

And you will cripple my career.

THE WOMAN

And?

THE MAN

I tell you frankly

These consequences fall on me.

I assure you, my feelings are also moved

When you harm the State and my career.

You support the enemy in our midst.

This is grounds for a divorce.

THE WOMAN

Certainly...if I harm you...

If I hinder your path...

THE MAN

There is still time.

THE WOMAN

Then certainly...

I am ready...

I’ll take the blame...

Do not fear, this divorce will not harm you.

You...

You...my arms reach for you

In great need.

My blood is pounding for you.

Without you I shall be a withered leaf.

You are the dew that unfolds me,

You are the storm in the spring

That lights a fire in my thirsty veins...

Let me humbly kiss your eyes...

I think I shall be weak without you,

Endlessly weak...

Forgive me, I am weak now.

I see the case clearly, and you are justified.

Tomorrow I stand before the masses —

Tomorrow I speak to them.


Tomorrow I attack the State

To which you swear allegiance;

Tomorrow I shred the mask

Of a murderer.

THE MAN

This is treason!

THE WOMAN

Your State makes war,

Your State betrays the people,

Your State exploits, forces, and oppresses

Its disenfranchised people.

THE MAN

The State is holy...war assures its life.

Peace is a phantom of neurotics.

War is nothing more than broken truce.

War is how the State, threatened inside and out,

Preserves its life.

THE WOMAN

How can a body live

Consumed by pestilence and fire?

Did you see the naked body of the State?

Did you see the worms devouring it?

Did you see the stock exchanges, that feed themselves

With human lives?

You did not see...I know you swore allegiance

You do your duty and your conscience is calm.

THE MAN

Is this your last decision?

THE WOMAN

My last word.

THE MAN

Good night.

THE WOMAN

Good night.

The MAN begins to go.

THE WOMAN

May I go with you?

Today for the last time...

Or am I shameless?

Shameless in my blood?

The WOMAN follows the MAN. The stage darkens.


SECOND PICTURE

(A DREAM PICTURE).

Indicated: The Great Room of the Stock Exchange. At the desk the

OFFICIAL RECORDER, around him BANKERS and BROKERS. The RECORDER

has the face of the HUSBAND.

THE RECORDER

I record.

FIRST BANKER

Munition factories—350.

SECOND BANKER

I’ll bid 400.

THIRD BANKER

Sold at 400.

The FOURTH BANKER drags the THIRD forward. In the background there

is a murmur of bidders and sellers.

FOURTH BANKER

Heard the news?

Retreat imperative.

The great offensive

Will fail.

THIRD BANKER

Reserves?

FOURTH BANKER

The human material

Is poor.

THIRD BANKER

Insufficient nourishment?

FOURTH BANKER

That also.

THIRD BANKER

The leadership?

FOURTH BANKER

Excellent.

THIRD BANKER

Not enough alcohol?


FOURTH BANKER

The distilleries

Burn at high pressure.

THIRD BANKER

What is lacking?

FOURTH BANKER

The General has called 93 professors

To headquarters. Results are rumoured.

THIRD BANKER

Which are?

FOURTH BANKER

To be kept dark

In bourgeois circles.

THIRD BANKER

Does masculine love

Weaken the troops?

FOURTH BANKER

Strangely, no.

Man hates man.

Something is lacking.

THIRD BANKER

What is lacking?

FOURTH BANKER

The mechanism

Of life

Has been revealed.

THIRD BANKER

What is lacking?

FOURTH BANKER

The masses need zest.

THIRD BANKER

What is lacking?

FOURTH BANKER

Love.

THIRD BANKER

That’s enough!

So is the war lost?

Our mighty instrument,

The violent instrument,


That makes the Kings and States,

Ministers, Parliaments,

Presses, Churches

Dance across the world,

Dance across oceans,

Lost?

Lost, you say?

Is this the balance?

FOURTH BANKER

You calculate poorly.

The source of error

Is known. It will balance.

THIRD BANKER

How so?

FOURTH BANKER

Internationally.

THIRD BANKER

Is that known?

FOURTH BANKER

On the contrary.

We dress it patriotically

And independent

Of our worthless currency.

THIRD BANKER

Well underwritten?

FOURTH BANKER

The biggest banks

Lend support.

THIRD BANKER

Profit?

Dividends?

FOURTH BANKER

Distributed regularly.

THIRD BANKER

The form of the business is good.

What’s the content?

FOURTH BANKER

The mask is a Convalescent Home

For Strengthening the Will to Victory:

Underneath it is a state-managed brothel.


THIRD BANKER

Terrific! I’ll buy

One hundred thousand shares.

One more question:

Who organizes?

FOURTH BANKER

Experienced generals,

Connoisseurs

Of the procedure.

THIRD BANKER

Is the system

Planned?

FOURTH BANKER

Rules of procedure,

As I just said.

Three prices.

Three categories.

Brothel for officers:

Stay overnight.

Brothel for corporals:

One hour.

Men in the ranks,

Fifteen minutes.

THIRD BANKER

I thank you.

When does the market open?

FOURTH BANKER

Any moment.

There is a noise in the background. The THIRD and FOURTH BANKERS

recede.

THE RECORDER

Newly admitted:

Veteran’s Convalescent Home,

Limited Company.

FIRST BANKER

I have no commission to buy.

SECOND BANKER

The dividends do not tempt me.

THIRD BANKER

I will take up

One hundred thousand

At par.


THE RECORDER

I record.

FOURTH BANKER

The same number.

FIRST BANKER (to SECOND BANKER)

He’s a cool bidder.

What do you think?

SECOND BANKER

A telegram!

The battle

On the Western front

Is lost.

FIRST BANKER

Gentlemen!

The battle

On the Western front

Is lost!

Calls, shouting, screeching.

VOICES

Lost!

VOICE

Munition factories

On offer

At one fifty.

VOICE

Liquid-fire-thrower Trust.

On offer.

VOICE

War-prayerbook Limited.

On offer.

VOICE

Poison-gas works.

On offer.

VOICE

War loan

Is on offer.

THIRD BANKER

I take up another

One hundred thousand.


VOICE

Oho!

In this slump?

VOICE

Who was it said the battle

Is lost?

VOICE

Is the news true?

Or meant to rig the market?

Cool bidder picks up

Twice one hundred thousand!

SECOND BANKER

What a racket!

I’ll buy at

One fifty.

VOICE

I’ll make it

Two hundred.

VOICE

I’ll buy at

Three hundred.

VOICE

Who’ll sell at

Four hundred?

I’m bidding.

THE RECORDER

I record.

FOURTH WORKER (to THIRD BANKER)

The sly fox guesses...

THIRD BANKER

Forgive the question.

Our strongest instrument

Is saved?

FOURTH BANKER

How can you doubt it?

The mechanism of life

Is so simple.

A leak was there...

It is discovered

And quickly stopped.

The bull or bear


The boom or bust

Is negligible.

The essential:

Stability of mechanic law.

The result:

The system saved.

THE RECORDER

I record.

The GUIDE enters. His face: woven with lines of death and lines of

intense life. He leads the WOMAN.

THE GUIDE

Gentlemen,

You record too hastily.

Blood and system!

Man and system!

The theorem is fragile.

One foot astray

And the mechanism

Is a shattered plaything.

Beware!

(to the WOMAN)

Speak, you!

THE WOMAN (softly)

Gentlemen,

These are men and women.

I say again

Are men and women.

The GUIDE and WOMAN fade. Sudden silence.

THIRD BANKER

Did you hear?

A mine disaster,

It seems.

People in need.

FOURTH BANKER

I suggest

A charitable entertainment,

Dance

In the Exchange.

Dance

Against want.

Proceeds

To the poor.

Gentlemen, if you please,

A dance!

I will contribute


A share

In the War Convalescent’s Home,

Limited.

VOICE

But women?

FIRST BANKER

As many

As you wish.

Someone tell

The porter

To order five hundred

Accomplished girls

Meanwhile...

THE BANKERS

We will contribute,

We will dance,

Proceeds

To the poor!

Music of clinking gold coins. The BANKERS in top-hats dance a fox-

trot around the desk. The stage darkens.


THIRD PICTURE

The stage remains dark. CHORUS OF THE MASSES (as from far off).

THE MASSES

We, eternally imprisoned

In the abyss of towering houses

We, abandoned and passed by

Scorned by the mechanism, the System

We, faceless in the night of tears

We, eternally motherless

From the depths of the factories we call:

When will we live in love?

When will we work at will?

When will we be delivered?

The stage grows lighter. A large hall. On the platform, a long

narrow table. The WOMAN sits on the left. Working men and women

closely packed in the hall.

GROUP OF YOUNG WORKING WOMEN

So battle spawns fresh battle!

No more dalliance with those masters,

No wavering nor weakness in our pact.

Our host of comrades is bound

To sow the machines with dynamite;

Tomorrow the factories scatter

In the air. Machines herd us like beasts

In the slaughterhouse. Machines clamp us

In a vice. Machines hammer our bodies

Day after day, into rivets and screws.

Three millimeter. Five millimeter.

Our eyes dry out, and our hands rot

On our living bodies.

Down with the factories!

Down with the machines!

SINGLE VOICES (shouting in the hall)

Down with the factories!

Down with the machines!

THE WOMAN

I too was blind and was attacked,

Martyred by pistons, choked by exhaust

In despair I too called for their destruction.

It is a dream that clouds your vision

A dream of children, scared of darkness.

And evil is the dream that blurs your eyes,

You children, scared with darkness!

This is the twentieth century.


The case is judged, the verdict is known.

The machine can never be destroyed.

Scatter the whole earth with dynamite

Let a single night of action

Blow factories to nothing—

In the next spring they will rise again

And work more cruelly than before.

Factories must no longer be the masters

And men the means.

Let factories be servants of a decent life!

Let the soul of man conquer the factories!

GROUP OF YOUNG WORKING MEN

Then let us perish with the factories.

We waste our words with rage and revenge.

The masters build themselves palaces

While our brothers rot in the trenches.

The dance swells in meadows, colourful games

At night we read of them and howl.

The craving for knowledge is within us...

But they took the best and made it evil.

Sometimes in the theatre it strikes us

So fragile and so fine, so beautiful

But mocking us again!

In schools they have destroyed our youth

In schools they have broken our souls

It is simple need, raw need, that we cry

Our stained and stinking need.

Who are we today?

We do not want to wait!

GROUP OF FARM LABOURERS

They have hounded us off our mother earth

Rich masters buy the land like they buy whores

Amuse themselves with our blessed mother earth

Force us into steel and weapon factories

Where we wither and die, torn from our roots.

The joyless cities shatter our strength.

We want the land! The land for all!

THE MASSES IN THE HALL

The land for all!

THE WOMAN

I passed through the poor quarters.

Grey raindrops drip from shingled rooftops

And fungus grows on bedroom walls,

In his room, a sick man stuttered:

“The street is almost better;

In here we live in sties.”

A shameful sneer was in his eyes

And I was shamed with him.


The way out, brothers, do you want to know?

The only way out for us weak ones,

We who hate the cannons? Strike!

Strike is our action!

We weak ones will become like stones,

And no weapon can be built that will defeat us.

Call forth the mute battalions

I call a strike! Hear me!

For six years Moloch devours our bodies.

In the streets the pregnant women break down

Too weak from hunger to go on.

In your homes need stares at you,

The plague, the madness, the green hunger.

But over there — look over there —

In the stock exchange it’s a Bacchanale

Champagne overflows at each new victory

Dances and orgies around the golden altar.

Outside? Did you seen the pale visage

Of your brother? Did you feel his body

Clammy in the chill, damp frost?

Did you smell the rot?

I ask, did you hear the screams? The call?

“Your turn has come!

We the powerless,

We the cannon fodder,

We cry to you:

You! Bring us help!

You! Be our bridge!”

Listen: I call a strike!

Who henceforth feeds the war factory,

Betrays his brother. Do I say betray?

No, he slays his brother.

I call a strike!


We call a strike!

We call:

Strike!

The NAMELESS comes out of the MASSES, hurries to the platform and

stands to the right of the table.

THE NAMELESS

Those who would build a bridge

Will need a strong foundation.

A strike today is like a bridge without the piles.

We need more than a strike. Let us be bolder.

A strike will give you peace this once.

A truce, no more. War must be ended

For all eternity—

But first, a last, most ruthless fight!

What use is it, if you end the war?


The peace you will create

Still leaves your fate unchanged.

Your old fate, a mask of peace!

Your new fate, a battle, a new order.

You fools, break the foundations!

Break the foundations!

Then let the flood wash away their corrupted house

Shored up with golden chains.

We build a habitable system

Where factories belong to workers.

Gone is the time when our bent backs

Hold up a greedy master seeking distant treasure

Foreign folk to enslave, wars to muse on

Lying papers to incite and screech:

“Fatherland! Motherland! For your country!”

With the true melody playing underneath:

“For me! For me!”

That time is gone!

A call to all the masses everywhere:

Factories belong to workers,

Power belongs to workers.

All for all.

I call more than strike.

I call: war.

I call: revolution.

The enemy up there

Doesn’t care for pretty speeches.

Use power against power.

Force for force.

A VOICE

Arms!

THE NAMELESS

Yes, you need only arms!

Storm the town hall and get them there;

And the war-cry will be: Victory!

THE WOMAN

Listen!

I will not have fresh murder.

THE NAMELESS

Be silent, comrade! What do you know?

I grant you sense our need.

But have you stood ten hours in a mine,

Your children homeless?

Ten hours the mine, evenings in a hovel,

Day to day the fate of the masses?

You are not the Masses!

I am the Masses!

The Masses are fate.



Are fate...

THE WOMAN

But consider,

Masses are powerless,

Masses are weak.

THE NAMELESS

How blind you are!

Masses are master!

Masses are might!


Are might.

THE WOMAN

My feelings urge me darkly,

But my conscience cries out: No!

THE NAMELESS

Be silent, Comrade, for the Cause.

The individual, his feelings and his conscience,

What do they count? The Masses count!

Consider this: one single bloody battle

Then eternal peace.

No mask of peace, as now,

A trick concealing war,

War of the strong against the weak

War of exploitation, war of greed.

Think: the end of misery!

Think: crime becomes a fable

The dawn brings freedom for all people!

Do you think I say it lightly?

War is necessary for us.

Your words bring division.

For the cause, be silent.

THE WOMAN

You...are...the Masses

You...are...right

THE NAMELESS

The foundations of the bridge are laid!

Whoever stands in our path, be trodden down!

Masses are deeds!

THE MASSES IN THE HALL (rushing out)

Deeds!

The stage darkens.


FOURTH PICTURE

(A DREAM PICTURE).

A courtyard surrounded by high walls is indicated. Night. In the

middle of the courtyard, standing on the ground, a lantern

dribbles scanty light. From the corners of the courtyard the

PEOPLE’S SENTRIES appear.

The SENTRIES sing a song together, a kind of blues. From anywhere,

the NAMELESS approaches with ghostly, noiseless steps. Stands

beside the lantern.

THE NAMELESS

Let’s dance,

I’ll play the next.

SENTRIES

Halt! Who goes there?

THE NAMELESS

Did I ask

For your names,

Nameless?

SENTRIES

Password?

THE NAMELESS

Masses are nameless.

SENTRIES

Are nameless,

As we all.

THE NAMELESS

I will play—

I, the herald

Of decision.

The NAMELESS begins to play a harmonica. Provocative rhythms, now

sensually soothing, now stormily passionate. A MAN CONDEMNED TO

DEATH, wearing a rope round his neck, steps out of the darkness.

THE CONDEMNED

In the name of those

Condemned to die:

We beg one last mercy:

Invite us to dance.

Dance is the kernel

Of all things:


Life,

Born of a dance,

Urges to dance.

Dance of desire,

Dance of death,

It is time.

SENTRIES

The last request

Of the condemned

Must always be fulfilled.

We invite you.

THE NAMELESS

Come!

Our colours

Are the same.

THE CONDEMNED

All those condemned to death!

Come forth!

The last dance!

Put down your coffins

And stand.

Others condemned to death, wearing ropes round their necks, come

out of the dark [with harlots]. They dance with the SENTRIES

around the NAMELESS. The SENTRIES sing the tune and mingle words

from before.

They go on dancing. The NAMELESS suddenly breaks off. The harlots

and the condemned run into a corner of the yard. Night swallows

them. The SENTRIES resume their posts. Silence gathers about the

NAMELESS. The GUIDE, in the shape of a SENTRY, has come through

the wall. He holds the WOMAN close to him.

THE GUIDE

The path

Is hard.

The end

Rewards the struggle.

Look there:

The play is just beginning.

If your senses tempt you,

Take a part.

A SENTRY brings in the PRISONER (face of the HUSBAND) and leads

him to the NAMELESS.

THE NAMELESS

Condemned

By the tribunal?


SENTRY

He condemned

Himself:

He shot at us.

PRISONER

Death?

THE NAMELESS

Are you afraid?

Listen:

Sentry! Speak out!

Who taught us

The death sentence?

Who gave our weapons?

Who cried “hero,” and “noble deeds”?

Who hallowed violence?

SENTRY

Schools.

Barracks.

War.

Always.

THE NAMELESS

Force for force.

Why did you shoot?

PRISONER

I swore allegiance

To the State.

THE NAMELESS

You die

For your Cause.

SENTRIES

Against the wall.

THE NAMELESS

Rifles loaded?

SENTRIES

Loaded.

PRISONER (to the wall)

Life.

Life!

The WOMAN tears herself away from the GUIDE.


THE WOMAN

Hold your fire!

That is my husband.

Forgive him

As I humbly forgive him.

Forgiveness is so strong,

Beyond any battle!

THE NAMELESS

Do they forgive us?

THE WOMAN

Do they wage war

For the people?

Do they fight

For all mankind?

THE NAMELESS

Only the Masses count.

SENTRIES

Against the wall!

SENTRY

Forgiveness is cowardice...

Yesterday I fled from our enemies

I was there against the wall.

My body scarred with beating.

Next to me the man

Supposed to kill me.

They made me dig my grave

With my own hands.

Before us, the photographer

Greedy, waiting to brand his plates

With my murder.

I shit on this revolution

If we let ourselves be taunted

By these fools and murderers.

I shit on the revolution.

SENTRIES

Against the wall!

The face of the PRISONER turns into the face of a SENTRY. The

WOMAN speaks to a sentry.

THE WOMAN

Yesterday you stood

Against the wall.

Today you stand again

Against the wall.

That is you,


Who stands today

Against the wall.

That is you.

Know yourself:

There you are.

SENTRY


THE WOMAN

Only Man counts.

ALL THE SENTRIES


THE WOMAN

I offer up

Myself

To mankind.

Ugly laughter from the SENTRIES.

THE WOMAN (stands beside her husband)

Then shoot me!

I renounce!...

I am so tired...

The stage darkens.


FIFTH PICTURE

The great hall. Dawn creeps through the windows. A dreary light

falls on the platform. The WOMAN sits to the left of the long

table, the NAMELESS to the right. At the doors of the hall are the

PEOPLE’S SENTRIES. In the hall isolated working men and women

crouch at the tables.

THE WOMAN

Has any news come in this last hour?

I slept. Forgive me, comrade.

THE NAMELESS

Message after message comes.

Battle is battle, a bloody game

That must be coolly judged.

Before midnight we occupied the station;

By one it was lost.

Now our forces advance to a new assault.

We hold the post office.

At this moment

The wires tell the people of our work.

THE WOMAN

Our work! What a holy word!

THE NAMELESS

A holy word, comrade!

It calls for steely armour,

It calls for more than burning speech,

It calls for ruthless war.

For whole seconds silence flickers in the hall.

THE WOMAN

Comrade, in the end I cannot resolve it.

This battle of steel violates us.

THE NAMELESS

The battle of words also violates us.

Do not be startled, comrade,

I grasp naked realities.

If I thought like you, I’d be a monk

Vowed to eternal silence.

Silence is about to settle heavily upon the hall. FIRST WORKMAN

comes in.

FIRST WORKMAN

I have news.

We advanced three times against the station.


The square is heaped with dead.

The enemy is well entrenched and armed

With liquid flame, mines, poison gas.

THE NAMELESS

You advanced three times.

And the fourth time?

FIRST WORKMAN

The fourth time never came—

The enemy attacked first.

THE NAMELESS

You held your ground.

Do you need reinforcements?

FIRST WORKMAN

We are shattered.

THE NAMELESS

We expected such setbacks.

Listen: go to the thirteenth district.

The reserves are there.

Go—hurry!

WORKMAN goes.

THE WOMAN

He spoke of deaths.

Many hundreds.

Did I not cry yesterday against war?

And today — am I to allow

My brothers to be thrown to their deaths?

THE NAMELESS

Your vision is unclear.

In yesterday’s war we were slaves.

THE WOMAN

And today?

THE NAMELESS

In today’s war we are free.

Silence is feverish.

THE WOMAN

In both wars...people...

In both wars...Man...

Silence reels. A SECOND WORKMAN rushes in.


SECOND WORKMAN

The post office lost!

Our men fleeing!

No pardons from the enemy!

Prisoners’ fate is death!

FIRST WORKMAN hurries in.

FIRST WORKMAN

I come from the thirteenth district,

The trouble was in vain.

The streets barricaded.

The district surrendered.

Our men giving up their arms.

THIRD WORKMAN

The town is lost!

Our work has failed!

THE WOMAN

It must fail...

THE NAMELESS

Once more: be silent, comrade!

Our work cannot fail.

If our forces be too weak today,

Tomorrow fresh battalions thunder.

FOURTH WORKMAN screams into the hall.

FOURTH WORKMAN

They are advancing!

O horrible butchery. My wife shot,

My father shot!

THE NAMELESS

They died for the Masses.

Raise the barricades!

We are still the defenders!

Our blood will bring fruit!

Let them come!

WORKMEN rush into the hall.

FIFTH WORKMAN

They are mowing us all down:

Men, women, children.

We must never surrender, to be killed

Like captive cattle!

They are mowing down the people, we must arm!

They shoot us down like wild beasts

Escaped from the cages of their law


And a price is on our heads.

But we have arms, and bourgeois hostages.

I have ordered half to be shot,

The other half will attack the shock troops.

THE NAMELESS

You avenge your brothers.

The Masses are revenge for the injustice of centuries.

The Masses are revenge!

THE WORKMEN

Revenge!

THE WOMAN

Stop this madness. I bar your path.

The masses should be people of love.

Masses should be community.

Community is not revenge.

Community plants a seed of justice.

Humanity, taking revenge, shatters itself.—

Half of them shot?

That was not self-defence.

Blind rage! Not service to the Cause!

You kill men.

Do you kill in the same spirit as the State

That attacks you?

Those men were under my protection.

I was ready to silence my conscience

For the Masses. I cry: shatter the system!

But you would shatter all mankind.

Today I cannot keep silence.

Those prisoners are men

Bloodily born to groaning mothers...

Men forever our brothers...

THE NAMELESS

For the last time: Silence, comrade!

Force for force.

They do not spare our bodies:

Pious visions will not win a bloody war.

Pay no attention to this woman.

It is the idle babble of her sex.

THE WOMAN

I call a halt!

And you...who...are...you?

Are you impelled by lust for power

Caged and pent up for centuries?

Who are you? O God, who are you?

Slayer or Saviour?

Nameless: your face?

You are...?


THE NAMELESS

The Masses!

THE WOMAN

You...Masses!

You are more than I can bear!

I protect the men outside.

I have been your companion these many years;

I know that you have suffered more than I.

I have grown up in sunlit rooms,

Have never known hunger,

Never heard the insane rattle of decaying walls;

Yet I feel with you, and I know you.

Look, I come as a begging child,

In all humility. Hear me:

Break the foundations of injustice,

Destroy the chains of secret servitude—

But throw away these weapons of the putrid past!

Smash this hate, smash revenge!

Revenge is not the will to create,

Revenge is not revolution,

Revenge is the axe that splits

The crystal, glowing, angry iron will

To revolution.

THE NAMELESS

How dare you, woman of your class,

Poison this decisive hour?

I hear another sound from your lips.

You protect your friends and first companions.

That is your deeper cause.

Traitor.

The MASSES in the hall crowd angrily round the WOMAN.

A SHOUT

Intelligentsia!

A SHOUT

Against the wall!

THE NAMELESS

To shield the prisoners is treason.

This hour calls for action,

Ruthless action.

Those not with us are against us.

Masses must live.


Must live!


THE NAMELESS

You are under arrest.

THE WOMAN

It is not the prisoners, not my first companions,

No, I am shielding you!

You all stand against the wall!

You line yourselves up to be shot!

I shield our souls!

I shield humanity...eternal humanity!

Insane denouncer—

Fear in my words—

Never so basely—

I chose—

You lie—you lie—

A WORKMAN enters the hall.

THE WORKMAN

One prisoner is shouting

Again and again

For our leader.

THE NAMELESS

Proof.

THE WOMAN

Once more...you lie...

Who wants to see me...who?

Perhaps my husband.

Never again could I betray him...

Now you betray yourselves—

I know nothing more...

The NAMELESS leaves the platform and disappears among the MASSES

in the hall. WORKMEN press in from outside.

WORKMEN

Lost.

SHOUTS

Fly! Fight!

Single shots heard outside. The WORKMEN throng about the door.

SHOUTS

The door is bolted!

Trapped like hares!

Silence, awaiting death.


SHOUT

To die!

Someone begins to sing the Internationale. The rest join in.

Mightily. Suddenly, a brief volley of machine guns. The song

breaks, crumbles. The principal and side entrances are burst open.

Soldiers with rifles levelled stand in the doorways.

OFFICER

Resistance useless.

Hands up!

Hands up, I say!

One by one they put up their hands.

Where is your leader?

Why don’t you put up your hands?

Put on the handcuffs.

SOLDIERS handcuff the WOMAN. The stage darkens.


SIXTH PICTURE

(A DREAM PICTURE).

Boundless space. In its kernel a cage on which a ball of light

plays. A PRISONER crouching in the cage (the face of the WOMAN).

Beside the cage the GUIDE in the form of a WARDER.

THE PRISONER

Where am I?

THE WARDER

In the showhouse of humanity.

THE PRISONER

Drive away the shadows.

THE WARDER

Drive them yourself.

From anywhere, grey, headless shadows.

FIRST SHADOW

Do you know me, murderer?

I was shot.

THE PRISONER

I am not

Guilty.


SECOND SHADOW

You murdered me.

THE PRISONER

You lie.


THIRD SHADOW

You murdered me.

FOURTH SHADOW

And me.

FIFTH SHADOW

And me.

SIXTH SHADOW

And me.


THE PRISONER

Warder! Warder!

The WARDER laughs.

THE WOMAN

I did not will

This blood.

FIRST SHADOW

You kept silent.

SECOND SHADOW

Silent at the storming

Of the town hall.

THIRD SHADOW

Silent at the theft

Of weapons.

FOURTH SHADOW

Silent through the battle.

FIFTH SHADOW

Silent at the calling

Of the reserves.

SIXTH SHADOW

You are guilty.

ALL SHADOWS

You are guilty.

THE PRISONER

I wished to save the others

From death.

FIRST SHADOW

You deceive yourself. Before then

We were shot.

ALL SHADOWS

You

Are our murderer.

PRISONER

So I am...

SHADOWS

Guilty.

Thrice guilty.


THE PRISONER

I...am...guilty...

The SHADOWS pale. From anywhere BANKERS in top-hats.

FIRST BANKER

Shares in guilt

On offer

At par.

SECOND BANKER

Shares in guilt

No longer valid.

THIRD BANKER

A bad investment,

Shares in guilt.

Scraps of paper.

BANKERS

Shares in guilt

Booked as a loss.

The PRISONER sits up.

THE PRISONER

I...am...guilty.

The BANKERS fade.

THE WARDER

You fool!

You sentimentalist!

Were they alive

They’d dance around the golden altar,

Where thousands were sacrificed.

You also.

THE PRISONER

I am guilty

Being man!

THE WARDER

Masses are guilty.

THE PRISONER

Then am I doubly

Guilty.

THE WARDER

Life is guilt.


THE PRISONER

Did I have to be guilty?

THE WARDER

Each lives his life.

Each dies his death.

As tree and flower,

So is man bound to fate

Form pre-ordained,

Created in unfolding

Created in destruction

Find the answer for yourself!

Life is all.

From anywhere, prisoners in convict’s clothes surround the

PRISONER. A pointed cap on their heads, to which is fastened a

scrap of cloth with slits for the eyes, covering their faces. On

the breast of every prisoner is a number. With monotonous and

soundless rhythm they march in a square about the cage.

THE PRISONER

Who are you?

Numbers!

Faceless!

Who are you?

Masses

Without faces?

A DISTANT MUFFLED ECHO

Masses...

THE PRISONER

God!

ECHO (receding)

Masses...

Silence drips.

THE PRISONER (screams out)

Masses are necessary!

Masses are guiltless!

THE WARDER

Man is guiltless.

THE PRISONER

God is guilty!

ECHO (far away)

Guilty— Guilty— Guilty—


THE WARDER

God is in you.

THE PRISONER

Then I will overcome God.

THE WARDER

Worm!

Blasphemer!

THE PRISONER

Is it I

Who blaspheme God?

Or does God blaspheme

Man?

Monstrous law of guilt

In which man and man

Must be entrapped!

God,

I summon you to Justice!

I accuse!

ECHO

To Justice.

The marching PRISONERS stand still. Their arms shoot upwards.

THE PRISONERS

We accuse.

The PRISONERS fade.

THE WARDER

You are healed.

Leave the cage.

THE PRISONER

I am free?

THE WARDER

Unfree!

Free!

The stage darkens.


SEVENTH PICTURE

A prisoner’s cell. Small table, bench and iron bed in the wall.

Small barred window with opaque glass. The WOMAN sits at the

table.

THE WOMAN

O path through the ripe wheat-fields

In August days...

Wandering the wintry mountains

Before dawn...

Tiny beetles in the breath of noon...

O world...

Silence spreads gently about the WOMAN.

Did I crave a child?

Silence stirs.

O disunion of life,

Welded to husband—welded to work.

To husband—to foe...

To foe?

Bound to the foe?

Bound to myself?...

That he would come. I need confirmation.

The cell is unlocked. The HUSBAND enters.

THE HUSBAND

Woman, I come....

Come, since you call me.

THE WOMAN

Husband! Husband...

THE HUSBAND

I bring you good news.

Your name— my name— is safe.

The investigation showed you guiltless

Of murder, of this outrage, of the shooting.

Be strong. Your death sentence is not yet confirmed.

For all your crime against the State,

Right-thinking people respect motives,

Principle, honour.

THE WOMAN (sobs softly)

I am guiltless...

Guiltlessly guilty...


THE HUSBAND

You are guiltless.

To the right-thinking, that is certain.

THE WOMAN

To the right-thinking!

I am so raw...

And glad that no disgrace falls on your name...

THE HUSBAND

I knew that you were guiltless.

THE WOMAN

Yes...you knew...

Respect for motives...so respectable...

I see you now so...clearly...

Yet you are guilty...husband,

You...guiltier than I of murder.

THE HUSBAND

Woman, I came to you...

Woman...your word is hate.

THE WOMAN

Hate? Not hate.

I love you—love you in my blood.

THE HUSBAND

I warned you of the Masses.

Who stirs the Masses, stirs up hell.

THE WOMAN

Hell? Who built this hell—

Conceived the tortures of your golden mills

Which grind, grind out your profit, day by day?

Who built the prisons? Who cried “holy war”?

Who sacrificed million after million—

Pawns in a lying game of numbers?

Who thrust the masses into rotting kennels,

That they must bear today

The filthy burden of your yesterday?

Who robbed his brothers of their human face,

Mechanized their bodies,

Debased them to be cogs in your machines?

The State! You!

THE HUSBAND

My life is duty.

THE WOMAN

Oh yes...duty...duty to the State.

You are...respectable...


I said yes, I see you clearly...

You are respectable.

Tell the right-thinking people

That they have never been right.

They are guilty.

All of us guilty...

Yes, I am guilty...guilty before myself...

Guilty before mankind.

THE HUSBAND

I came to you...

Is this your court?

THE WOMAN

Yes. Here a court of judgment is growing.

I, the accused, am the judge.

I prosecute, I pronounce guilty

And I absolve...

The final guilt?

Guess who bears the final guilt?

Man must will his works,

And works grow red with blood of man.

Man must will to live,

And around him rises a sea of blood.

Guess who bears the final guilt?...

Come, give me your hand,

Beloved of my blood.

I have overcome myself...

Myself and you.

The HUSBAND shudders. Thoughts distort his face. He stumbles out.

THE WOMAN

Give me your hand...

Give me your hand, brother,

You too, my brother.—

You are gone...you had to go...

The last path leads across the snow-fields.

The last path knows no guide.

The last path is motherless,

The last path is loneliness.

The door is opened. The NAMELESS enters.

THE NAMELESS

Recovered from delusion? Dispelled the dreams?

Has the sharp knife of insight pierced your heart?

Did the judge say “mankind” and “I forgive you”?

The lesson has been wholesome

And I congratulate you on conversion.

Now you’re ours again.


THE WOMAN

You? Who sends you?

THE NAMELESS

The Masses.

THE WOMAN

Then I am not forgotten?

The message...the message...

THE NAMELESS

I am to bring you freedom.

THE WOMAN

Freedom!

Life!

We escape? Is all prepared?

THE NAMELESS

Two warders have been bribed.

The third, the one at the gate, I shall strike down.

THE WOMAN

Strike down...for me...?

THE NAMELESS

For the Cause.

THE WOMAN

I have no right

To gain my life by this man’s death.

THE NAMELESS

The Masses have a right to you.

THE WOMAN

What of the warder’s right?

The warder is a man.

THE NAMELESS

As yet there are no men.

On this side men of the Masses,

On that side men of the State.

THE WOMAN

Man is naked.

THE NAMELESS

Masses are holy.

THE WOMAN

Masses are not holy.


Force made the Masses.

Injustice and property made the Masses.

The Masses are impelled by need,

Credulous humility...

Cruel revenge...

The Masses are blind slaves

And holy aspiration.

The Masses are a trampled field,

A buried people.

THE NAMELESS

And action?

THE WOMAN

Action! And more than action!

Set free the Man in Masses,

Set free community in Masses.

THE NAMELESS

The rough wind at the gate

Will cure you.

Hurry,

Our time is short.

THE WOMAN

You are not freedom.

You are not the solution.

I know you, who you are.

“Strike down!” Always you strike down!

You are a bastard child of war.

You poor new hangman.

Your only words of salvation:

“Death!” and “Exterminate!”

Throw off the cloak of fine words,

It is worn as thin as paper.

THE NAMELESS

The chief murderers fight for the State.

THE WOMAN

They murder, but not for joy.

They, like you, believe their mission.

THE NAMELESS

They fight for the oppressor State,

We fight for mankind.

THE WOMAN

You murder for mankind,

As they, deluded, murder for their State.

Some even thought that by their State, their Fatherland,

They might redeem the earth.


I see no difference:

These murder for one country,

The others murder for all countries.

These kill for a thousand men,

And these kill for millions.

He who murders for the State,

You call hangman, or soldier.

He who murders for humanity,

You crown, you call moral, noble, hero.

You even speak of healing force, of holy violence!

THE NAMELESS

Accuse them, you accuse life!

Should I condemn millions to slavery,

Because their masters may be true believers?

And will you be less guilty

If you keep silence?

THE WOMAN

If fate thrusts you into these times,

And fate gave you the power to destroy

Those who doubt you as our new Saviour,

Then I know: this fate hates man.

THE NAMELESS

The Masses count, not man.

You are no hero of ours, no leader.

Each carries his infirmity of origin,

You the birth-marks of your class:

Weakness and self-deception.

THE WOMAN

You do not love man.

THE NAMELESS

The Cause comes first.

I love the people that will come,

I love the future.

THE WOMAN

People come first!

For the sake of the Cause

You sacrifice the living.

THE NAMELESS

The Cause demands their sacrifice.

But you betray the Masses, you betray the Cause.

Today you must decide.

Whoever wavers, whoever cannot choose,

Helps the masters who oppress and starve us—

Who wavers is our foe.


THE WOMAN

I would betray the masses

If I took but one man’s life.

Only myself may I sacrifice.

Hear me: no man may kill another man

For the sake of a cause.

Unholy every cause that needs to kill.

Whoever calls for mankind’s blood

Is Moloch.

God was Moloch.

State was Moloch.

Masses were Moloch.

THE NAMELESS

Then who is holy?

THE WOMAN

Once...

Community...

Free humanity, bound by common labour...

Work. People.

THE NAMELESS

You lack the courage for action,

To take upon yourself hard action.

Only by ruthless action

Can this free people come to be.

Atone with your death.

Perhaps your death is useful to us.

THE WOMAN

I live eternally.

THE NAMELESS

You live too soon.

The NAMELESS leaves the cell.

THE WOMAN

You lived yesterday.

You live today.

Tomorrow you will die.

But I will be forever,

From circle to circle,

From turn to turn,

And one day I shall become

Purer,

More guiltless,

Human.

The PRIEST enters.


THE PRIEST

I come to help you in your last hours.

The Church does not deny her care

Even to you.

THE WOMAN

Who sent you?

THE PRIEST

The state officials

Instructed me to come.

THE WOMAN

Where were you on the day of sentence?

Go.

THE PRIEST

God forgives even you.

I know your case.

Mankind is good, you dreamed.

So you committed nameless atrocities

Against the sanctity of State and holy order.

Mankind is evil from the first.

THE WOMAN

Mankind gropes towards goodness.

THE PRIEST

A lie of decadent times,

Born of decay, despair, flight,

Protected by the waxen shell

Of borrowed faith

And threatened with bad conscience.

Believe me, men do not

Even aspire.

THE WOMAN

Men grope for goodness.

Even when they do evil

They wear a mask of goodness.

THE PRIEST

Peoples grow, peoples decay,

None have seen an earthly paradise.

THE WOMAN

I believe.

THE PRIEST

Remember this:

Greed for power and lust for pleasure—

These are the rhythms of life.


THE WOMAN

I believe!!

THE PRIEST

The world is endless and unchanging change of forms,

Mankind is helpless. God is his sole salvation.

THE WOMAN

I believe!!!

I am cold...Go away,

Go now.

The PRIEST leaves the cell. The OFFICER enters.

THE OFFICER

Here is the sentence.

Mitigating circumstances are known.

Nonetheless. Crime against the State must be atoned.

THE WOMAN

You will have me shot?

THE OFFICER (as if giving words of command)

Orders are orders. Obedience obedience.

The welfare of the State Peace Order.

The duty of a soldier.

THE WOMAN

And of a man?

THE OFFICER

All conversation is forbidden.

Orders are orders.

THE WOMAN

I am ready.

The OFFICER and the WOMAN go out. For some seconds the cell

remains empty. Two FEMALE PRISONERS in convict’s clothes steal in

and stand by the door.

FIRST PRISONER

Did you see the officer?

Such a golden uniform?

SECOND PRISONER

I saw the coffin. In the washroom.

A yellow box.

The FIRST PRISONER sees some bread on the table and pounces upon

it.


FIRST PRISONER

Bread there!

Hungry! Hungry! Hungry!

SECOND PRISONER

Bread for me, bread for me, bread for me!

FIRST PRISONER

A mirror. So beautiful.

Hidden. Evenings. Cell.

SECOND PRISONER

Silk scarf!

Naked breast, silk scarf!

Hidden. Evenings. Cell.

From outside the hard rattle of a volley bursts into the cell. The

PRISONERS are terrified. The FIRST PRISONER takes the hidden

mirror from her pocket and lays it back on the table. She falls on

her knees and sobs:

FIRST PRISONER

Sister, why do we do this?

In immense helplessness, her arms hang into space. The SECOND

PRISONER takes the silk scarf from her pocket and hastily lays it

back on the bed.

SECOND PRISONER

Sister, why do we do this?

SECOND PRISONER breaks down. Her head falls to her lap.

The stage closes.


MASSES AND MANby Ernst Toller / in a new translation

by Nicholas Johnson

ENSEMBLEAlanna Beeken • Claire Bermingham • Marie Brennan • Aoife Burke •

Jessica Carri • Marianne Cassidy • Ciaran Clarke • Sarah Duffy • Ross Dungan •Gavin Fitzgerald • Emma Gleeson • Zia Holly • Davey Kelleher • Justine King •

Anna Murray • Victoria Nellis • Katie O’Kelly • Emily Reilly

STAFF

Director: Nicholas Johnson

Assistant Director/Production Manager: Paul Bonar

Stage Manager: Gabriel Peelo

Assistant Stage Manager: Aoife Kerr

Set: Colm McNally

Lighting: Katherine Graham

Set/Lighting Assistant: Frida Lanbro

Props: Eibhlish Fleming & Paul Bonar

Costume: Sarah Grealy, Geraldine Maguire & Rosie O’Keefe Doyle

Choreography: Jessica Carri & Emma Martin

Publicity: Elizabeth Bragg

CREWS/CONSTRUCTION

SET: Alanna Beeken • Emma Gleeson • Katie O’Kelly • Kate Brower

SOUND: Claire Bermingham • Marie Brennan • Marianne Cassidy • Ciaran Clarke

• Gavin Fitzgerald • Clodagh NicGabhann • Rachel Parker

COSTUME: Sanne Berntsen • Aoife Burke • Sarah Duffy • Claire Hughes

• Justine King • Barbara McCarthy • Anna Murray

LIGHTING: Ross Dungan • Zia Holly • Davey Kelleher • Emily Reilly

ERNST TOLLER (1893 - 1939)

“I have glossed over nothing — error, incompetence, and failure are all recorded, my own inadequacies as well as those of others. For to be fair one must look at all the facts; to be just one must forget nothing; to be courageous one must understand everything. Beneath the yoke of barbarism one must not keep silence; one must fight. Whoever is silent at such a time is a traitor to humanity.”

(Written the day his books were burned in Germany.)

SPECIAL THANKSMichael Canney, Colm Hackett, Francis Thackaberry, and the staff of the Samuel Beckett CentreBrian Singleton, Matthew Causey, and the faculty and students of the Department of DramaDU Players and the 2008-09 Committee • Jennifer Killelea and Painted Filly TheatreKatrin Wächter, Katrin Beushausen, the students of P14, and the Volksbühne BerlinBlacktie • Jennifer, Joanne, & the TCD Exams Office • Cindy Gold • Emily JeffersEd Lawlor • Ingrid Zeller • Friends and family of the Cast & Crew

For Géza von Molnár, 1932 - 2001

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR/TRANSLATORNICHOLAS JOHNSON is an actor, director, and writer currently completing his PhD on Samuel Beckett. An

artistic director and executive producer with Dublin’s Painted Filly Theatre, he was trained as an actor at Northwestern University in Chicago and has performed internationally for 20 years. He was a 2004 DAAD

Fellow in Berlin, Germany, and received the 2005 George J. Mitchell Scholarship as well as the inaugural 2006 Samuel Beckett Studentship in support of his work in Ireland. He tutors and teaches part-time at TCD.

Masse Mensch by Ernst Toller

Documents

Transcript of Masse Mensch by Ernst Toller