Fräulein Else: Schnitzler’s Novella Adapted for the American Stage

Liz Ametsbichler (University of Montana) [BIO]

Email: liz.ametsbichler@mso.umt.edu

 

ABSTRACT:

In 2003 Fransesca Faridany translated and adapted Arthur Schnitzler’s novella Fräulein Else for the American stage. It had its world premiere at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre from February 28 to March 28, 2003, after which it was performed in various theaters around the country. In this paper I will look at Faridany’s adaptation and its success in the United States. A reviewer for The San Francisco Chronicle wrote that the play is “…a concentrated, compelling drama – a gripping story of the unraveling of a mind trained for frivolity…” – a comment that establishes an interesting link between Viennese society of the early twentieth century and twenty-first-century America. The question at the heart of my examination is: just why does Else’s story present a “compelling drama” for an American public circa eighty years after the stream-of-consciousness novella was published? What connections can be established between the two societies that, on the surface, would seem so diverse and disconnected?