Schnitzler Season
Rehearsed Readings

Lieutenant Gustl

British Première presentation of a dramatic monologue, typical of the best of Schnitzler's comic writing; and Flowers, a companion piece about a someone who discovers that the flowers sent by and erstwhile lover are just a standing order.

Comedy of Words

Three short, bitter-sweet pieces, designed to be presented together, including Bacchanalia, a comedy set in a railway café which curiously foreshadows Brief Encounter by some 50 years.

Fraulein Else

The sexual exploitation of a young woman becomes indistinguishable from her world of private fantasy in Schnitzler's most direct drawing on Freudian psychology. This acclaimed novella was adapted for the stage in 1932 with the young Peggy Ashcroft in the title role. It has not been seen since.

Professor Bernhardi

Aftter La Ronde, the play for which Schnitzler was best known and his only work to deal openly with Austrian antii-Semitism. Bernhardi, a prominent Jewish liberal physician, refuses to allow a Catholic priest to visit a dying girl in order that her last hours may be unmarred by knowledge of her impending death. the girl dies and a scandal explodes which sees Bernhardi imprisoned.