Never Again War: The Sacrifice of Käthe Kollwitz
SueMedia Productions/Midsummer Sound Company present this original audio drama by Helen Engelhardt.
Begun as a stage play by Engelhardt, this adaptation focuses on key moments in the life of renowned artist Käthe Kollwitz to reveal the complex world in which she lived and the destructive nature of war. After her youngest son was killed in Belgium during the opening weeks of World War I, she devoted the rest of her life to using her art in opposition to war.
The play begins in Berlin in February 1914 at a party in the Kollwitz home celebrating the eighteenth birthday of her son Peter. A few months later as war begins, Peter implores his parents for permission to join his older brother Hans to become a soldier in the army.
To uphold her sons' idealism to sacrifice for the Fatherland, the socialist Kollwitz finds herself supporting them in a war she deeply disapproved of. When the play concludes two weeks before Germany's defeat at the end of World War II, Kollwitz has learned that every war is answered by a new war until everything is smashed because every war carries within it the war that will answer it, as World War II answered World War I.
Cast:
Käthe Kollwitz: Yelena Shmulenson
Hans amd Karl Kollitz: Nick Sullivan
Peter Kollwitz: Robert Fass
Jutta Kollwitz: Katherine Kellgren
Additional voices: Natalia Bell, Wilson Bridges, Butch D'Ambrosio, Nicholas Herd, Ryan McCabe, Alan Sklar
Production credits:
Audio play and booklet: Helen Engelhardt
Poem translations: Professor Robert Kramer
Translation assistants: Hanny Budnick, Almut Fitzgerald
Special thanks: Dr. Krishna Winston
Package design: David Shinn
Sculpture photos: Marjorie Van Halteren
Front cover design: Sue Zizza
Crowd recordings: Natalie Cordero
Engineering/Mastering: David Shinn
Director/Producer: Sue Zizza
Special thanks: The staff of the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln
“I was deeply moved by Never Again War, a very sensitive, quiet, and reflective production. And daring too, to show a German’s point of view in a positive light during the two great wars. Wonderful performances by everyone. I haven’t heard anything that touched me so deeply in a long, long time.”—Tom Lopez, president of the ZBS Foundation
Helen Engelhardt (Author), A Full Cast, Katherine Kellgren, Nick Sullivan, Robert Fass, Yelena Shmulenson (Narrator)
Audiobook
