About the work
Gerhart Hauptmann's Berlin tragicomedy of 1911 is set in the attic of a tenement in proletarian Berlin. The play interweaves a naturalistically precise study of milieu with reflection on the theory of theatre and is considered the last great achievement of German Naturalism. The premiere took place at the Lessingtheater Berlin.
Plot
Frau John, the wife of a bricklayer foreman, cannot have children of her own and secretly takes in the illegitimate child of the maid Pauline Piperkarcka. When Pauline demands her child back, Frau John has it disposed of by her criminal brother. In parallel, the same building hosts the story of the former theatre director Hassenreuter, who gives elocution lessons there. The two strands of action meet in a drama of truth, appearance and the rats that inhabit the house.
Cultural significance
Die Ratten marks Hauptmann's departure from pure Naturalism and his opening toward tragicomic, almost absurd constellations. The figure of Frau John ranks among the great female roles of German theatre — a woman who becomes a murderer out of maternal love. Directors such as Peter Zadek and Michael Thalheimer have repeatedly rediscovered the play in recent decades and read it as a surprisingly modern work.