Playbill for Gerhart Hauptmann’s Before Daybreak [Vor Sonnenaufgang] (October 20, 1889)

Facsimile of the playbill from Gerhart Hauptmann’s “social drama” Before Daybreak [Vor Sonnenaufgang]. Hauptmann’s naturalist work was one of the first productions staged by the Free Stage Association; it caused a sensation on opening night in October 1889. The play corresponded with Hauptmann’s observation that “writers are the tears of history.”

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Source: Gernot Schley, Die Freie Bühne in Berlin. Der Vorläufer der Volksbühnenbewegung. Ein Beitrag zur Theatergeschichte in Deutschland, Berlin: Haude & Spenersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1967, p. 51.