The Enemy

Performances

December 3 & 4, 1929

Venue

Illini Theatre

Synopsis

Carl Behrend, son of a wealthy businessman, marries Pauli Arndt, daughter of a pacifist professor. When World War I breaks out, Carl is drafted. Pauli and her family and friends are left behind to experience the suffering which befell civilians during the war. Her luck worsens when her father is dismissed for teaching that war is evil. Her father argues violently with Carl’s father, and degradation and despair descend on Pauli and her family as they await Carl’s return from the front. In the last act we learn that the war is over, Carl has been killed in battle, Pauli’s baby has died of malnutrition and the profiteer August Behrend has been awarded a gold medal for'”services to the nation.” So victory is as meaningless as defeat. Pauli says,”We’re all pacifists now, especially the returned soldiers.”

Author: Channing Pollack

Historian’s Corner

The following tidbit was taken from The Pantagraph, (date unknown) just before the opening of the show. It reads as follows, ”Speaking of plays brings vividly to mind that this is the week that The Community Players’ great and long planned achievement of presenting “The Enemy,” on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at The Illini Theatre, under the direction of Frank Vernor. Such meticulous care is given exactitude of properties, in all Community Players’ offerings. When a little English flag was missing, zero weather had no power to keep the property people from scouring the town to find one.”