Stage Freight: Labour and the Representability of Capitalism in Gerhart Hauptmann’sThe Weavers

Abstract

This article discusses Gerhart Hauptmann’s The Weavers and the play’s representation – and management – of labour. A dark drama about starvation and labour exploitation, Hauptmann’s play paradoxically involves costly logistics and an excessively large cast. The text of The Weavers creates the challenge of its staging, and the arduous relationship between text and production is central to Hauptmann’s exploration of human labour. The Weavers dramatizes the exploitation of wage labour, the ideology of the work ethic, and the conflict between labour and capital. In doing so, Hauptmann’s labour drama grapples with what Fredric Jameson has called “the representability of capitalism.” Looking closely at the relationship between Hauptmann’s text and its staging, throughout its production history, this article argues that The Weavers explores the problem of representing labour in the theatre and reveals the signs of labour that capitalist culture seeks to conceal.