Gas

Gas is play apparently performed in Johannesburg in 1938, with designs by Leo Kerz. Most probably directed by him as well, and performed in the Pioneer Theatre, Johannesburg.

The only references to the play found so far are two designs for "Gas" by Leo Kerz, in the Louise Hirschfield collection held in the Harvard Theatre Collection. (Kerz had been Hirschfield's first husband.) Kerz's designs are of a stylized factory setting.

Based on this information, it would seem that Gas is probably a staged version of the experimental 1929 play Gas Masks by Sergei Eisenstein, originally performed on site in a working gas factory, since the Eisenstein work fits thematically and stylistically with Kerz's own concerns and his earlier work with Brecht and Piscator.

(TH)

Sources

Stage design for “Gas” by Leo Kerz, 1938, Johannesburg, South Africa (The Harvard Theatre Collection)[1]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Eisenstein

Mike O'Mahony, Sergei Eisenstein[2]