Else Lasker-Schüler wrote the avant-garde drama

[

] between 1907 and 1908. It was published in 1909 and premiered as a private performance in 1919, directed by Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. The play includes strong elements of naturalism but also shows expressionist and symbolist influences. The author calls it “a city ballad and simple workers’ tale”. Written shortly after the first aborted attempt at revolution in czarist Russia, the play is a critical assessment of the social conditions at the turn of the century. However, the subject is not purely one of class struggle but of a variety of conflicts connected to gender and sexuality. It is a play of transgressing boundaries.

The action is set near the

1149 words

Citation: Kraft, Helga W.. "Die Wupper. Schauspiel in fünf Aufzügen". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 February 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=16177, accessed 21 November 2024.]