A comedy by Ernst Toller
“Now, little ones, you may play with your toy soldiers again.”
Emil the Barber in *Never Again Peace*
As if overnight, public discourse is once again dominated by conscription, militarism, and combat effectiveness. Just yesterday, the Constitution invoked the will for “Perpetual Peace,” the “lessons” drawn from history were extolled, and all nations of the world were called upon to pursue the promising goal of international understanding. But now weapons are being forged, arms manufacturers are being courted, and conscientious objectors are being called “cowards.”
This is not at all what a spiritual Francis of Assisi, champion of holiness, had imagined from his vantage point on Mount Olympus. With firm faith in goodness, he believes paradise is possible even on Earth. At which Napoleon—who is also loitering in the afterlife—can only laugh. Growing increasingly bored with angels and clouds, the ex-Emperor of all the French—seeking distraction—therefore draws the ascetic penitent into a dispute over the true nature of humanity. And to determine whether human nature is inherently more inclined toward war or toward peace, war is declared by telegram on the most peaceful city on earth. War breaks out immediately; the barber Emil declares himself—in a clear allusion to the Nazi dictatorship—the head of state and enthusiastically mobilizes against the “enemy,” who simply never shows up anywhere… And, as expected, a wave of violence, racism, persecution, and senseless destruction ensues—all in the name of a supposed threat to the people and the nation.
Joanna Lewicka’s production combines the anti-war comedy—which premiered in London in 1936 with an overture by Hanns Eisler and songs by Herbert Murrill—with passages from Toller’s first play, *Die Wandlung*. The struggle of a man who chronicles the arduous journey of a war volunteer toward pacifism—a journey that made the 25-year-old famous overnight. Two highly topical texts by the significant author—who took his own life in 1939 while in exile in the U.S.—whose work was just as unwelcome to the Nazi book burners as his magnificent dramas *Masse Mensch*, *Hinkemann*, and *Hoppla, *Hoppla,* *we live!*, his Jewish heritage, or his autobiography *A Youth in Germany*—which is indispensable for understanding the history of the period.
