Sunday, April 17, 2005
Freud's Playwright Pal
Sigmund Freud often marvelled at the sharp psychological insights that his close friend, the great writer Arthur Schnitzler, also a Viennese Jew (far left), unearthed in his numerous plays and short stories. Last night we enjoyed the Mint Theater's excellent revival of Schnitzler's "Lonely Way," not seen in New York for 71 years.
Difficult family relationships, sexuality, our shifting needs and desires and the betrayals and compromises these imply... this was heady and groundbreaking material in Schnitzler's 1900-1925 heyday. And yet, he was the most prolific and popular German-language playwright of his day. Of course, he drew anti-semitic ire and was banned when Hitler annexed Austria 7 years after his 1931 death. Schnitzler's short story "Traumnovelle", incidentally, was the source material for Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut."
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