Karl Schönherr is the leading representative of folk drama in Tirol, the Alpine region that is one of Austria's nine "lands" or states. He is a major figure in Austrian Heimatliteratur (literature that glorifies a region, usually a rural one), and his plays are still occasionally performed in Austrian theaters. Schönherr blurred the barrier between "high" and "low" drama by bringing his regional plays to prestigious German-speaking stages; he enjoyed considerable popularity with audiences, although critical reception was mixed. Most of his plays are set in the Tirol and written in an authentic but understandable regional dialect. A physician, Schönherr was better educated than many regional writers, but he aimed at a broad audience with his unambiguous messages and unsophisticated emotional appeal. In addition to his skillful rendering of dialect, Schönherr's strengths as a dramatist include economy of words, actions...