The History Channel, original podcast.

History This Week, March 29th, 1923.

I'm Alana Casanova Burgess.

The Glitzy Khrforstadam Theatre is packed with well-dressed Berliners.

The theater is new, and so is the play.

Well, it's new to this German audience, at least.

It's been lighting up stages across Europe and the U.S. for two years now.

The lights go down, and the curtains open on two actors in a familiar scene, a boss

and his secretary at the office.

The executive, who is powerful and important enough to have a private secretary, you know,

leans back in his chair and says, take a letter

and dictates something that provides all the exposition

that the audience needs to get things going.

This is Seton Hill Professor Dennis Jers,

who has been teaching this play

in his English and media classes for years.

He says this would have been a familiar trope,

an office comedy,

but this version comes with a twist.

The boss, Harry, rattles off a long letter,

getting the audience up to speed.

But while Harry's going on and on,

...