Prussian Discipline and Lesbian Vulnerability: Christa Winsloe’s Children in Uniform at the Gate

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the Dublin production and critical reception of Christa Winsloe’s Children in Uniform, which ran to full houses at the Gate for three weeks in April 1934. The play, which deals with the love between a Prussian schoolgirl and her female teacher, had premiered in Leipzig (1930), run successfully in Berlin (1931), and been adapted for the screen as Mädchen in Uniform (1931) before it was translated into English for a successful London run in 1932-1933. Edwards and mac Liammóir probably saw the original German play in Berlin in 1931. Using the prompt copy, lighting plots, photographs and reviews, the chapter shows how Edwards used expressionistic lighting and sonic leitmotifs to underscore the authoritarian regime within which the relationship between the women develops. In following the Berlin staging, Edwards produced a more subversive version of the play than that seen by London audiences or cinema goers.