''The Dance of Death'' is a one-act play in verse and prose by
W. H. Auden, published in 1933.
''The Dance of Death'' is a satiric musical extravaganza that portrays the "death inside" the middle classes as a silent dancer. The dancer first attempts to keep himself alive through escapism at a resort hotel, then through nationalistic enthusiasm, then through idealism, then through a New Year's party at a brothel, before he finally dies. Karl Marx appears on stage and pronounces the dancer dead. "The instruments of production have been too much for him."
The play was published by
Faber & Faber in 1933, with a dedication to
Robert Medley
Charles Robert Owen Medley CBE, RA, (19 December 1905 – 20 October 1994), also known as Robert Medley, was an English artist who painted in both abstract and figurative styles, and who also worked as theatre designer. He held several teachin ...
and
Rupert Doone
Rupert Doone (born Reginald Woodfield, 14 August 1903 – 4 March 1966) was a British dancer, choreographer, theatre director, and teacher in London.
Biography
Doone was born in Redditch, Worcestershire, from a Worcestershire family in reduced ...
. It was performed by the
Group Theatre (London)
The Group Theatre (London) was an experimental theatre company founded in 1932 by Rupert Doone and Robert Medley. It evolved from a play-reading group in Cambridge that Doone had been involved with during his years studying with the Cambridge Fe ...
, in 1934 and 1935. It was widely interpreted as pro-Communist, but Auden later wrote in a copy of the printed text, "The communists never spotted that this was a nihilistic leg-pull".
References
* W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood. ''Plays and other dramatic writings by W. H. Auden, 1928-1938'', ed. by
Edward Mendelson (1986). (Text of the play, with historical and textual notes)
*
John Fuller, ''W. H. Auden: A Commentary'' (1999).
*
Edward Mendelson, ''Early Auden'' (1981).
External links
The W. H. Auden Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dance of Death, The
Plays by W. H. Auden
1933 plays
Faber and Faber books