"A Mail Comes to Germany"

Otago were much more audacious in the choice of their production Draussen vor der Tur by Wolfgan Borchert, a modern play and very characteristic of the bitter despondent theatre which the decadence of Europe has been producing since the war.

It is the story of the misfit in modern society—the repatriated soldier who feels lost in the ungrateful world of peace which rejects him as so much war surplus.

This is not an original theme, but Borchert's treatment of it is and it is noteworthy that the play was written in 1947 at which time the ideas it contains were strikingly new.

The play revolves around the central figure of Beckmann, and the success of the production was due in a large measure to the acting of Rudolf Hehenberger. Unfortunately, his tendency to speak too quickly detracted from some passages where a more ponderous delivery would have been effective.

On the whole, Draussen vor der Tur, although scarcely an entertainment, was presented in a manner stimulating to the intellect and Otago are to be congratulated on their daring in choosing so difficult a play and in attaining a production of a generally high standard which reproduced faithfully the heightened dramatic and emotional content of the play and the author's anger at society.