The Dance of Death(Auden play)

First edition
(publ.Faber & Faber)

The Dance of Deathis aone-act playin verse and prose byW. H. Auden,published in 1933.

The Dance of Deathis 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 byFaber & Faberin 1933, with a dedication toRobert MedleyandRupert Doone.It was performed by theGroup Theatre (London),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

General references

• Auden, W. H.; Isherwood, Christopher (19 February 2019).The Complete Works of W.H. Auden: Plays and Other Dramatic Writings, 1928-1938.Princeton University Press.ISBN978-0-691-65614-4.
• Fuller, John(1998).W.H. Auden: A Commentary.Princeton University Press.ISBN978-0-691-07049-0.
• Mendelson, Edward(22 May 2000).Early Auden.Farrar, Straus and Giroux.ISBN978-0-374-52695-5.

External links

• The W. H. Auden Society