{"id":53049,"date":"2024-02-01T20:35:43","date_gmt":"2024-02-01T19:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=53049"},"modified":"2024-05-03T14:00:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T12:00:01","slug":"fire-and-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/fire-and-ice\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire and Ice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A review of the play Fire in the Temple, <\/em>performed in the USA.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The year 2023 marked a significant step in anthroposophical history: for the first time, Rudolf Steiner has been portrayed in a mainstream movie. The film is Lasse Hallstrom\u2019s production of Hilma<\/em>, based on the life of the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint, an artist who felt deeply connected to Steiner. Although actor Tom Wlaschiha\u2019s blue eyes and dapper suits detract from the historical accuracy of his rendering, it is nonetheless astonishing to see any<\/em> version of Rudolf Steiner (and, for a moment, even the First Goetheanum) on the big screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Concurrently, and perhaps by way of an antidote, the year also witnessed the portrayal of Rudolf Steiner on the stage in the new drama, The Fire in the Temple,<\/em> written by Glen Williamson and directed by John McManus. In September, the play had seven premiere performances in Harlemville, NY, Chestnut Ridge, NY, and Kimberton, PA. It was the final step of six years of collaborative work involving the writer, director, and the community of actors, speech artists, and eurythmists who had presented dramatic readings and previews to small audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play spans the months beginning New Year\u2019s Eve, 1923, when the First Goetheanum was destroyed by arson, through March of 1925, when Rudolf Steiner died, possibly as the result of poisoning. Although reference is often made to the stormy events transpiring in Europe that were to alter the course of world history, the play\u2019s focus is on the interplay of Rudolf Steiner and his wife, Marie Steiner, his physician, Ita Wegman, and his colleagues, G\u00fcnther Wachsmuth and Ehrenfried Pfeiffer. Like the Three Graces, the sculptor Edith Maryon, the astronomer Elisabeth Vreede, and the eurythmist \u201cFraulein Samwaller\u201d (a composite figure based on several people, particularly Mieta Waller) play smaller but no less significant roles. In the spirit of parte<\/em> repraesentans totem<\/em>, even these spiritually attuned relationships have more than their share of turbulence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those years of \u201canthroposophical history,\u201d so filled with remarkable achievement in the face of ineluctable tragedy, would in themselves present a challenge to a dramatic depiction. In the spirit of Steiner\u2019s Mystery Dramas,<\/em> Williamson also expands the audience\u2019s vistas by millennia as we witness the karma that is being played out at significant junctures on the stage. This is a daunting task for a stage play: even the skilled cinematic skills of the Wakowskis in their film The Cloud Atlas<\/em> were profoundly challenged when trying to bring reincarnation to the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williamson\u2019s script guides his audience in \u201cbreathing in Time<\/em>,\u201d allowing for an experience of contraction in the present life and expansion into past lives. The play\u2019s director, John McManus, developed a simple but powerful means to represent successive incarnations onstage, eschewing special effects and providing the audience with a dynamic \u201cshuffling off of the mortal coil\u201d as characters flow from one incarnation to another. Audience members may have found themselves initially confused as Ita Wegman merged into the being of Alexander the Great or Albertus Magnus transformed into Marie Steiner. However, this proved to be a brilliant directorial approach, for the characters on stage were themselves<\/em> no less confused as they experienced their past incarnations. The audience could vicariously share in the awakening of the joys, sorrows, and profound responsibilities inherent in crossing the threshold of self-knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is only natural to assume that a play in which Rudolf Steiner is the protagonist would verge on hagiography, but that is not the case. Williamson walks the fine line between Steiner the Initiate and Steiner the human being\u2014even the playful<\/em> human being who delights in engaging in a silly game with one of his proteges. Indeed, that fine line between the man and his mission is the play\u2019s \u201copen secret\u201d and the mainspring of its most compelling drama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Ita Wegman\u2019s consciousness expands, Steiner tells her: \u201cThe old mysteries are fading. But new mysteries can now be built on karmic relationships. . . It would be good if more people could wake up to these connections\u2014and also grasp their own karmic threads.\u201d That these relationships can only be brought to resolution and harmony by human beings incarnated in physical bodies was a revelation often overlooked by those closest to Steiner. Cataclysmic as the burning of the Goetheanum was, as the play proceeds, that tragedy fades into the background. The greater tragedy, we realize, is that those nearest to Steiner fell short of recognizing their connectedness\u2014not only to their teacher but to one another. We might imagine that coming to experience past lives and karmic relationships would open new vistas of social harmony, but that is not a given. Indeed, on the stage, such revelations may merely provide more fuel for the competitive fire blazing in repartee that is tragicomic in its intensity. Williamson portrays highly developed individuals like G\u00fcnther Wachsmuth and Marie Steiner expressing their corrosive jealousy not only toward the present-day Ita Wegman, but toward her past<\/em> identities as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Approaching the Goetheanum\u2019s ruins, Steiner insists, \u201cIn spiritual work, there is no failure, only diversion and delay. We will build again,\u201d and so the monumental task of erecting the Second Goetheanum begins. Given his respect for the freedom of others, Steiner could not command the transformation of his associates\u2019 sympathies and antipathies towards one another\u2014those<\/em> fires would not be quenched so easily. It is ironic that even though his colleagues keep close watch over one another\u2019s interactions with their teacher, their rivalries blind them to the appearance of a figure at a public gathering who slips poison into Steiner\u2019s tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The progressive forces helping the anthroposophical impulse are portrayed through the eurythmic movements of the Archangel Michael, and the oppositional forces are represented as \u201cGreen Demons\u201d who slither on and off the stage at critical moments. The fact that the demons are performed by the same actors who portray Wachsmuth, Pfeiffer, Maryon, and others makes it possible to stage this ambitious play with a small cast. But John McManus\u2019 staging of these demonic appearances also makes it clear that the demons are not the cause<\/em> of the hindrances and errors that are underway but are rather the effects<\/em> of the human beings\u2019 unconscious decisions and actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play begins, as the title promises, with the luciferic conflagration of the Goetheanum fire, but it concludes on a colder and more ahrimanic note. In Robert Frost\u2019s words,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice . . .
. . . But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Williamson does not hesitate to indicate that the external attacks on Steiner and his teachings\u2014even those staged by a powerful and reactionary Brotherhood\u2014were not the greatest obstacles that he faced. Steiner understood it was the all-too-human failings of those nearest and dearest to him that sapped his vital forces and were to have a calamitous effect on the future of the movement he founded. As Steiner crosses the Threshold at the play\u2019s conclusion, it appears likely that the rivalries will continue. Fire in the Temple<\/em> concludes with the gathering of human and spiritual beings around Steiner\u2019s deathbed. It is a scene filled with despair, Michaelic resolve\u2014and ambivalence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collaborative energies of the playwright and director created a unique and powerful production. The performances of the principals, Rudolf Steiner (Peter Josephson), Ita Wegman (Rosibel Mejia), and Marie Steiner (Laurie Portocarrero), were incandescent. The coruscating sparks that fly between the independent spirits of Steiner and his wife seem born from flint and steel, while the light that flows between Steiner and Ita Wegman is enveloped by the warmth of karmic recognition. In the production of the play that I saw in Camphill Village Kimberton Hills, every actor delivered an exceptional performance. Peter Josephson\u2019s Rudolf Steiner, in particular, was not only a portrayal. Onstage for most of the play\u2019s two and a half hours, he seemed at times to embody<\/em> Steiner; even as he lay upon his deathbed, his life forces ebbing, Josephson\u2019s dramatic energy was tangible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For anyone connected with a community or institution based on Rudolf Steiner\u2019s initiatives, Fire in the Temple<\/em> may serve as a vivid and moving re-introduction to the man and his work and the urgency of his teachings about karma. And for those who are avid readers of Steiner\u2019s books and lectures but are less familiar with the people close to him at the end of his life, this play may be a reminder of the enormous challenges and obstacles Steiner faced before his death. As a documentary, a comedy of manners, a tragedy, and a Mystery Drama woven into one, Fire in the Temple<\/em> stands as a unique contemplation of the centrality of Rudolf Steiner in our time. It deserves many more performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Performances<\/strong> Rudolf Steiner \u2013 Peter Josephson, Marie Steiner \u2013 Laurie Portocarrero, Ita Wegman \u2013 Rosibel Mejia, Fr\u00e4ulein Samwaller, \u201cSam\u201d \u2013 Kayla Hope Nicosia, Edith Maryon \u2013 Faith DiVecchio, Ehrenfried Pfeiffer \u2013 Liam McGilligan, G\u00fcnther Wachsmuth \u2013 Dhruva Corrigan, Elisabeth Vreede \u2013 Catherine Decker, Secret Brother \u2013 Marke Levene, Grand Master \u2013 Vincent Roppolo, Archangel Micha-el \u2013 Zachary Dolphin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More<\/strong> Fire in the Temple<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image<\/strong> Final scene from Fire in the Temple, Photo:\u00a0Catdodge Photography, Source: Anthropos<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A review of the play Fire in the Temple, performed in the USA. The year 2023 marked a significant step in anthroposophical history: for the first time, Rudolf Steiner has been portrayed in a mainstream movie. The film is Lasse Hallstrom\u2019s production of Hilma, based on the life of the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint, an artist who felt deeply connected to Steiner. Although actor Tom Wlaschiha\u2019s blue eyes and dapper suits detract from the historical accuracy of his rendering, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19899,"featured_media":53050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9183,10376,10464],"tags":[11487,8814],"class_list":["post-53049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-anthroposophy","category-review-en-2","category-stage-arts","tag-en2024-5","tag-musings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}