Werfel, Franz (1890–1945), Austrian dramatist and novelist, who first became known as one of the early poets of
Expressionism. His first theatrical success was
Die Troerinnen (1916), an adaptation of
Euripides' Trojan Women acclaimed as a disguised protest against war, but his main contribution to Expressionist drama was the ‘magic trilogy’
Der Spiegelmensch (
The Mirror Man, 1921), a modern version of the
Faust-Mephistopheles theme, showing in symbolic images man in constant conflict with his
alter ego. This was followed by
Bocksgesang (also 1921), produced in New York as
Goat Song by the
Theatre Guild in 1926. In it man's rebellion against the established order is symbolized by a monster, half-goat half-man, who leads a peasants' revolt in the 18th century. In his later plays Werfel turned to historical themes presented in a more realistic manner, his greatest theatrical success being
Juarez und Maximilian (1924) on the tragedy of the Habsburg Emperor of Mexico. Two further historical plays proved less successful:
Paulus unter den Juden (1926), which centres on the conflict between inspired prophecy and established religion among early Christians, and
Das Reich Gottes in Böhmen (1930). Roused by the Nazi persecution of the Jews, Werfel then wrote a verse play,
Der Weg der Verheiβung, illustrating the tragic history of Judaism through the ages. It was staged in New York in 1936 in a spectacular production by
Reinhardt. Werfel's last play, written after he had left Germany for the USA, was, unexpectedly, a comedy,
Jacobowsky und der Oberst (set in 1940, after the fall of France), in which a Jewish refugee contrives to smuggle an anti-Semitic Polish officer through the German lines to safety. Translated by S. N.
Behrman, this was successfully staged in New York in 1944 as
Jacobowsky and the Colonel (London, with Michael
Redgrave, 1945).
