"Mephisto" by Klaus Mann comes to the stage of the Schauspiel under the direction of Claudia Bauer. The intensity of the book is not lost in the adaptation. An intense play, which is strongly played by Paula Hans, Anna Kubin, Sebastian Kuschmann and the rest of the ensemble. And that's what the play is about:
Hendrik Höfgen, an actor consumed by ambition, comes to terms with National Socialist ideology for career reasons and rises to theater stardom under the dictatorship. Höfgen's path is lined with the shards of broken friendships and relationships; he sacrifices everything to his egomaniacal dream of fame. He forces his longtime lover Juliette Martens to emigrate because the racist reason of state will not tolerate his association with her as a black woman.
Klaus Mann's novel, written in 1936 while he was in exile, uses sharp-tongued comedy and detailed human observation to raise questions about individual responsibility, opportunism and resistance, and how art relates to power. The novel, which has been adapted for the stage by the multi-award-winning director Claudia Bauer, is still an exemplary work of anti-fascist agitational literature today.
