The Play of Everyman
The Play of Everyman is American poet and playwright George Sterling's adaptation of Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal's 1911 German play Jedermann. Lavish productions of The Play of Everyman in 1917 and 1936 were acclaimed by critics and boosted the careers of people involved. Sterling's adaptation was also staged in 1941 in New York City and 1977 in Brentwood, Los Angeles.
Creation of ''The Play of Everyman''
Austrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal combined the Middle English play Everyman with three other medieval plays to make one new play in German: Jedermann: Das Spiel vom Sterben des reichen Mannes. His German play was a success in Berlin in 1911. A paperback book of the German Jedermann sold well enough to require several printings. Austrian-Polish stage and film director Ryszard "Richard" Ordynski acquired the rights from Hofmannsthal to stage an English language version of Jedermann and to print it as a book.Ordynski persuaded his lover, oil heiress Aline Barnsdall, to finance Jedermanns first English language stage production in Los Angeles. He gave the German Jedermann book to a stenographer with the German consulate in Los Angeles to translate into English. Ordynski chose poet and playwright George Sterling to turn the stenographer's rough translation into a polished play. He offered Sterling half the writer's royalties from play ticket and book sales, with the other half of the writer's royalties paid to Hofmannsthal. In late 1916, Sterling traveled from his San Francisco home to Los Angeles to work with Ordynski on the new play.
Sterling found the stenographer's translation "difficult material to work on." He also had a copy of Jedermann in German. Fortunately, Sterling studied German in high school, Ordynski was fluent in German and English, and Sterling probably had a German-English dictionary. Hofmannsthal used rhyming couplets for all dialog, which to Sterling sounded artificial. He transformed the characters' speech into more natural and dramatic blank verse to, he said, "lend an articulation, flexibility and suspense not readily accessible to one who would use the other form." Hofmannsthal included four songs; Sterling replaced one with a completely new song and revised two others. At Ordynski's suggestion, Sterling added two new characters, War, and Workman. Sterling also changed scenes and dialogs. Instead of writing a faithful translation, he adapted Jedermann into what he hoped would be a more emotionally compelling experience, a "re-working of the... play rather than a translation.... Not only does Sterling add characters but he alters our perception of the existing ones as well. He seems to attempt to update and correct the original rather than translating it." As the play's opening night drew nearer, Sterling put in longer hours. He worked on Christmas Day from 8:00 in the morning to 11:40 at night so the following morning of December 26 he could rush The Play of Everyman manuscript to a printer. The frantic printer managed to typeset, print, and bind 200 books in time to sell at the January 8 opening performance.
Synopsis
The Lord God is dismayed to have been forgotten by man. He sends Death to retrieve Everyman.At his mansion, wealthy Everyman calls for his Steward and Cook to prepare a feast for his family and friends. Everyman meets his flattering Friend. A Poor Neighbor begs Everyman for money but feels disappointed to receive just a tiny coin. Everyman meets a Debtor led by two Officers. Everyman filed a legal complaint against the Debtor, so the officers are taking him to prison. The debtor's wife and children follow, dressed in rags. Everyman tells his friend to find shelter for the Debtor's children and wife so Everyman will no longer hear "her wails." An old Workman asks Everyman for "a pittance for mine age," but Everyman angrily refuses him and sends him back to work. Everyman's Mother warns him about abandoning the church and focusing on money and worldly joys.
Everyman's Paramour brings him to his feast. A Singer sings about feasting, drinking, companions, and love, interrupted briefly by War, who asks Everyman to join him. Everyman refuses, and his companions resume singing, drinking, and feasting. Everyman speaks of his own death. His guests try to cheer him with humor, songs, and wine. Death appears and tells Everyman he must take him immediately, but Everyman persuades Death to give him one hour to find someone who will go with him to Death.
Everyman tries to find a person to accompany him but fails. Mammon says riches will not go with Everyman to Death. A frail, weak woman, the Good Deeds of Everyman, speaks from her sickbed. Good Deeds says she will go with Everyman to Death. She summons her sister, Faith. Everyman proclaims his faith in God. Everyman's Mother on her way to early mass hears angels sing and knows her son's soul is healed. The Debtor and the Workman help Good Deeds rise. A Monk takes Everyman away to sanctify him. A Devil tries to block Faith and Good Deeds. Death bells ring. The Devil fails and leaves Faith and Good Deeds. Everyman returns, transformed. Death returns. Good Deeds, Faith, and Everyman stand before his grave, then they enter the grave together. Again, angels sing.
Richard Ordynski's 1917 production
Producer-director Ordynski's plan was to premiere The Play of Everyman in a one-week engagement at a large theater in Los Angeles, then move the production for limited engagements first to San Francisco, then to Oakland, and finally, if all went well, to New York City.To match Sterling's new lyrics for the play's songs, Ordynski hired composer Victor Schertzinger to write new song music, plus an overture and incidental music for the play. Ordynski booked the huge Trinity Auditorium, which seated 2,500 spectators and claimed to feature the largest pipe organ in the western United States. Schertzinger's music score incorporated the organ plus a twenty-piece orchestra and a choir.
Ordynski hired a cast of 46 actors, including some familiar to audiences from theatre and silent film appearances. All were cast locally, except one: To play the title role of Everyman, who appears in almost every scene, Ordynski brought leading man Gareth Hughes from New York. Ordynski and Hughes had worked together before.
For weeks before the show's opening, publicists for The Play of Everyman saturated southern Californians with stories about the drama. Publicity about its music, actors, costume designer, and producer-director Ordynski appeared in newspapers from large to tiny. The cast and crew appeared on radio shows, club meetings, schools, and churches. Even Sterling did his part: "I'm helping out all I can to advertise the play. I spoke on it yesterday at the Friday Morning Club, am to address some men's uplift club this noon, and talk to a high-school bunch on Tuesday. New job for me! I hate it, but it seems to be the square thing to do. Ordynski and the others aren't sparing themselves."
Ordynski scheduled opening night for Monday, January 8, 1917, but his complicated production was not ready. He pushed opening night back to Tuesday, January 9. His team's unceasing publicity work paid off. Pastors and even a bishop told their congregations to see the play. Advance ticket sales were brisk. Excited audiences applauded, and all critics' reviews were enthusiastic. Ordynski's production seemed to be a hit.
The Play of Everyman had only one week at the Trinity Auditorium because Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore was booked to lecture there. After Everymans successful one-week stay at Trinity, Ordynski relocated the drama to the large Burbank Theater for another one-week run. The Burbank run was not supported by another wave of publicity. Ticket sales were weak. The Play of Everyman lost money in Burbank. After Burbank, Ordynski canceled planned San Francisco performances and returned to New York., where he directed operas for the New York Metropolitan Opera. He hoped to use costumes and sets from his California production to stage The Play of Everyman in New York. Near the end of 1917, Ordynski asked Gareth Hughes to star again in the title role, this time in New York. Hughes agreed, but Ordynski could not find backers. His lavish production was never restaged.
1917 critical reception
Reviews were enthusiastic. No unfavorable reviews appeared. National showbusiness news magazine Variety said: "The production is elaborate and the presentation is an artistic triumph."Los Angeles Times reviewer Henry Christeen Warnack: "... the beautiful Von Hofmannstl versionhas been translated from the German into blank verse of a joyous stride by California's premier poet, George Sterling.... Special music had been composed for the production by Victor Schertzinger and the orchestra was conducted by Herr Adolph Tandler, with Prof. Charles H. Demorest serving the occasion as organist. All of this was quite important for without significant music the spiritual suggestion of the story would be lost.... Gareth Hughes, as Everyman, reminds one of the old school of actors at the best of their youth in Hamlet."
Los Angeles Evening Express drama critic George St. George: "There is something very beautiful and very impressive about Everyman as presented by Richard Ordynski and Aline Barnsdall at Trinity Auditorium this week. From the standpoint of dramatic value and human interest it ismuch ahead of the old English version... the new Everyman, in the beautiful, simple English of George Sterling, should prove a success from a popular as well as an artistic standpoint.... Ordynski is the first man to introduce Los Angeles to the real possibilities of stage lighting, and last night, in a hall utterly devoid of the most simple requirements in this field, he played upon the emotions as effectively with his lights as did either Mr. Schertzinger's music or Mr. Sterling's book.... Everyman... is not gruesome nor depressing and, as presented last night in the midst of wonderfully effective settings, glowingly beautiful costumes and symbolic music, it is far removed from the tiresome palaver that is frequently set forth.... Victor Schertzinger has written a musical setting that is impressively beautiful. He has "moded" his music admirably to Mr. Sterling's text and it had no small part in lifting last night's performance to a thing above ordinary."
Los Angeles Record: "From the viewpoint of modern stage productions, the presentation of Everyman, given at Trinity Auditorium Tuesday night, was most important. It ranks with the best that America has produced for several years..."