IT HIT HOME

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 32, 23 March 1942, Page 6

IT HIT HOME

PLAY THAT VILED THE NAZIS

"A war broke out in Germany over the plfty "The Folly Vineyard," such as I had never dreamed of unloosing," -writes Carl Zuckmayer, in his recently published autobiography: "it was. as a matter of fact, the first great cultural fight between the Nazis, who had inscribed the slogan of 'Blood and Soil' on their banners, foamed at the mouth with rage because these ideas unintentionally and unempliatically had been brought to actual life in a play. They were (as I think the} r should be) expressed in the spirit of the real, genuine folk, which does not fit into any party framework. But something even more interesting occurred: the Nazis felt themselves to be caricatured in a laughable, ridiculous personage- in the play/ m whom fun and satiric content were concentrated. This was something I "had not intended, at least not consciously. I had no idea how near the bull's eA'e I had struck—indeed, straight into the vanity of the Nazis, who saw in tiii- unsympathetic fignre iiu-lr own qualiti"- rr/V----!y unveiled ;nul derided . . . SiIhey raged individually in groups, in organisation-. against the play. 1 iie/v were soldi :es, brawls. There ■--.'as a total ..f seventy-1 wo theatre nets. In a number of cities it had !o be given under police guard, and in my homo town ol' .Mainz t lie re Mas such a -demonstration against the theatre that whole sections of I Hie city had to be barred."