Death and the Devil

By: Frank Wedekind, Samuel A. Eliot - translator, Denis Daly - translator

Narrated by: John Burlinson, Amanda Friday, Mark Crowle-Groves, Leanne Yau, Denis Daly

Death and the Devil: A Dance of Death in Three Scenes by Frank Wedekind. Translated by Samuel A. Eliot and Denis Daly. Cast: The Marquis Casti-Piani - John Burlinson; Fräulein Elfriede von Malchus - Amanda Friday; Herr König - Mark Crowle-Groves; Lisiska - Leanne Yau. Stage directions read by Denis Daly. Audio edited by Denis Daly.

This play forms part of a tetralogy which focuses on one of Wedekind's obsessive themes: the destructive interplay between primal sexual urges and social convention. Each play revolves around a powerful young female character, who has the power to control and captivate men, but who in turn is destroyed by the exercise of that power.

In this play, the dominant female is Fräulein Elfriede von Malchus, an idealistic crusader who visits a brothel operated by the cynical impresario Casti-Piani in order to rescue a young woman who has fallen into his clutches.

In a perverse way, Wedekind's plays are morality tales, in which he gives a new twist to the biblical admonition; "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." In most cases, when characters finally do become aware of who they are and what they have done, the knowledge leads to their destruction. In Death and the Devil, Casti-Piani kills himself when he learns that prostitution can actually provide its victims with a path to moral glorification.

Public Domain (P)2018 The Online Stage