About the work
Gerhart Hauptmann developed the material from a paraphrase of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" he had begun in 1913; the first edition appeared in 1920 with S. Fischer in Berlin. This five-act verse drama premiered on 23 February 1922 at the Dresden Schauspielhaus, staged by Hauptmann together with Paul Wiecke, who also played the lead role of Prospero.
Plot
The shipwrecked European Prospero is crowned priest-king by the inhabitants of an island. When his son Ormann, believed dead, lands on the island, he turns against his father. The islanders demand a human sacrifice, and Prospero throws himself from the rim of a volcanic crater. His children Ormann and Pyrrha, unaware they are siblings, fall in love with each other.
Cultural significance
Hauptmann regarded the play as a kind of poetic testament blending Platonic, Buddhist and Christian motifs. Critics were largely unimpressed, and later scholarship judged that the material had "grown beyond" the playwright's control.