THEATRE: London Goes Continental

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Beverly Andrews

LONDON, Nov 21 1995 (IPS) - The new trend in London’s world of theatre is to seek inspiration from theatre in continental Europe – or simply “Europe” for those Britons who don’t consider themselves belonging to that part of the world.

London’s Riverside studios, for example, are currently playing host to Koncrete Theatre Company’s premier of Klaus Mann’s ‘Mephisto’.

Adapted from the German author’s novel published in 1936 it tells the story of an ambitious actor working in Germany during the rise of National Socialism. His ambitions conquer his conscience as he compromises friends and family in his march to the top only to realise what a shallow victory he has in fact achieved.

The character of Hendrik Hofgen was based quite closely on the actor Gustaf Grundgens, Mann’s former brother-in-law. The actor, working in Germany, became quite famous for his interpretation of Goethe’s Faust as the actor in the role of Mephistopheles.

Associated early in his career with the communist movement in Hamburg, with the rise of Nazism in Germany he managed to distance himself from his socialist past and took over as the Artistic Director of the Prusssian State Theatre in Berlin in 1934.

This post inevitably meant siding with the Nazi regime – accepting power from the devil, but Grundgens always maintained that he was not interested in politics and choose to turn a blind eye to the horrors going on around him.

He is quoted as saying, “The only thing that I knew for certain during the war was that on the stage at 8.15 pm, a door would open and Marianne would enter in a blue dress.”

After the war, the actor managed, like many in Germany, to maintain his reputation and continued as a prominent and respected figure in German theatre.

Katrin Magrowitz, the show’s director states, “I feel this is a very significant play for our times, as more and more people strive to obtain material things they are ever willing to compromise many of their principles.”

Mephisto is very much in keeping with Koncrete Theatre Company’s growing reputation for mounting ambitious physical theatre. Founded in 1993 the company has strived to create productions based on European literature with new adaptations.

The company has helped to bridge the gap between the traditional narrative base of English theatre and the more experimental theatre seen on the continent. Magrowitz comments: “I feel it is important for theatre to be passionate and to make people react, not necessarily always in the ways that they expect but in a more deeply felt way.” (MORE)

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THEATRE: London Goes Continental

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Beverly Andrews

LONDON, Nov 21 1995 (IPS) - The new trend in London’s world of theatre is to seek inspiration from theatre in continental Europe – or simply “Europe” for those Britons who don’t consider themselves belonging to that part of the world.
(more…)