Gate Theatre Club poster
Poster
1981 (designed), 1981 (printed)
1981 (designed), 1981 (printed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
This poster advertised a production at London's Gate Theatre, the theatre club started in 1979 by the American director and writer Lou Stein in a room above the Prince Albert Pub in Notting Hill Gate. Dedicated to producing the best works of foreign writers, the Gate established itself by 1981 as one of London's best fringe venues, along with the King's Head and the Bush. In 1982 the club expanded to include a brand-new custom-built studio theatre in Battersea, above the Latchmere Pub.
Maske opened on 27 August 1981 and ran until 19 September. It featured the three plays The Underpants, The Snob and 1913, adapted by Lou Stein from Carl Sternheim's cycle Scenes from the Heroic Life of the Middle Classes. The plays are a cartooned and caricatured account of German domestic and political life in the years immediately preceding World War I, with farcical action incorporating the saga of dropped knickers and the collapse of the gold standard. The George Grosz drawing on the poster mirrors the cartoon-like tone of the production.
Maske opened on 27 August 1981 and ran until 19 September. It featured the three plays The Underpants, The Snob and 1913, adapted by Lou Stein from Carl Sternheim's cycle Scenes from the Heroic Life of the Middle Classes. The plays are a cartooned and caricatured account of German domestic and political life in the years immediately preceding World War I, with farcical action incorporating the saga of dropped knickers and the collapse of the gold standard. The George Grosz drawing on the poster mirrors the cartoon-like tone of the production.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Gate Theatre Club poster (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Screen print |
| Brief description | Poster advertising Maske. Scenes from the Heroic Life of the Middle Classes directed by Lou Stein and adapted by him from the original cycle of plays by Carl Sternheim, Gate Theatre Club, 27 August 1981. |
| Physical description | Pictorial poster printed in indigo ink on peach coloured paper featuring a reproduction of a George Grosz drawing of a cigar-smoking man (probably representing Theobald Maske, the self-seeking anti-semitic civil servant of the play), dressed in a suit, standing legs akimbo, with his hands in pickpockets. With the name of the Gate Theatre top left and the title of the play in German-style typeface in a box on the lower left hand side, with the names of the adapter and director Lou Stein and the designer of the production Wallace Heim. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Credit line | Given by Lou Stein |
| Object history | Poster advertising the production of Maske. Scenes from the Heroic Life of the Middle Classes adapted and directed by Lou Stein from the original plays by the German author Carl Sternheim, regarded by some as Germany's greatest 20th century comic dramatist. The production included the three plays The Underpants, The Snob and 1913. The plays are a cartooned and caricatured account of German domestic and political life in the years immediately preceding World War I, which ranges from the saga of dropped knickers to the collapse of the gold standard. The play was translated by Eric Bentley and included Anthony Head and John Abbott. |
| Summary | This poster advertised a production at London's Gate Theatre, the theatre club started in 1979 by the American director and writer Lou Stein in a room above the Prince Albert Pub in Notting Hill Gate. Dedicated to producing the best works of foreign writers, the Gate established itself by 1981 as one of London's best fringe venues, along with the King's Head and the Bush. In 1982 the club expanded to include a brand-new custom-built studio theatre in Battersea, above the Latchmere Pub. Maske opened on 27 August 1981 and ran until 19 September. It featured the three plays The Underpants, The Snob and 1913, adapted by Lou Stein from Carl Sternheim's cycle Scenes from the Heroic Life of the Middle Classes. The plays are a cartooned and caricatured account of German domestic and political life in the years immediately preceding World War I, with farcical action incorporating the saga of dropped knickers and the collapse of the gold standard. The George Grosz drawing on the poster mirrors the cartoon-like tone of the production. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.97-2008 |
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| Record created | May 28, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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