"This is the richest and most detailed study in English of Ernst Toller's plays and their most significant productions. Dr Cecil Davies places particular emphasis on the productions directed by Karl-Heinz Martin, Jurgen Fehling and Erwin Piscator, showing how these brilliant directors at times obscured and even distorted Toller's intentions. While Dr Davies sees the plays as eminently stageworthy, he shows that their primary value is found in Toller's use of language, both in prose and in verse. The neglected puppet-play The Scorned Lover's Revenge is viewed from a new perspective, both with regard to its language and its theme of sexuality, so critical to Toller's writings as a whole." "The Plays of Ernst Toller gives the reader a new understanding of why Toller was regarded as the most outstanding German dramatist of his generation, until his work was overshadowed by Bertolt Brecht. Dr Davies' exceptional study aims to restore Toller to his rightful place in the archives of theatre history and to encourage the revival of his plays on the contemporary stage."--BOOK JACKET.