Elsewhere
Elsewhere
✭✭✭✭✭
by Friedrich Schiller, directed by Peter Stein
Berliner Ensemble, Kindl-Halle
May 19-July 8 & August 25-October 7, 2007
For German speakers the must-see theatre event this year is the Berliner Ensemble’s production of Friedrich Schiller’s complete Wallenstein trilogy directed by the great Peter Stein at age 69. Schiller’s “Mary Stuart” and “Don Carlos” have been receiving more and more productions abroad, but the chances of seeing the Wallenstein trilogy complete even in Germany are relatively rare. The Berliner Ensemble offers audiences the chance to see the ten-hour epic all on one day which is really the best way to get caught up in the action and the work’s multiple moral complexities. It may be hard to believe but under Stein’s expert direction the play is so gripping that the ten hours seem to fly by. The play is not performed at the Ensemble’s home at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, but rather in the disused Kindl-Halle of the former Kindl-Brauerei in Neukölln. The proscenium stage opening is very wide and narrow with rather the same aspect ratio as old wide-screen films and is instantly suggestive of epic drama. About 1200 seats on risers face the stage.
The Wallenstein trilogy is composed of the one-act play “Wallensteins Lager” (“Wallenstein’s Camp”) from 1798 and the two five-act plays “Die Piccolomini” (the family name of Wallenstein’s best friends) and “Wallensteins Tod” (“Wallenstein’s Death”), both from 1799. Schiller wrote the plays after writing a history of the devastating Thirty-Years War (1618-48) between Protestant and Catholic forces with Germany as it primary battlefield. At the centre of the play is Albrecht von Wallenstein (1583-1634), generalissimo on the Catholic side under the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. The action takes place in the winter of 1633-34, almost 16 years after the start of the war. Ferdinand (who never appears) has used Wallenstein to secure his greatest victories, but fearful of his power has dismissed him, only to recall him to action again in 1630 when the Catholics seemed to be losing. Wallenstein is unhappy with how the Emperor has used him and the Emperor is concerned that Wallenstein’s 100,000 troops seems to be more loyal to their general than to the Emperor. As in “Mary Stuart” and “Don Carlos” the stage is set for a world riddled with political intrigue that crushes all innocence and idealism.
“Wallensteins Lager” is nearly impossible to read because it consists of so many intersecting conversations. On stage, however, Peter Stein makes it all completely clear. After revered actor Walter Schmidinger reads the famous Prologue from a podium, we see on Ferdinand Wögerbauer’s snow-covered set all the diverse members of Wallenstein’s army from the soldiers of various lands to their children and tutors pass by the central food tent ruled by a Mother Courage-like figure (Elke Petri) or become involved in the card-playing to one side, the cooking around a fire to the other or in the conversation at a table in downstage centre. While the following two plays are set among the nobles and higher levels of command, “Wallensteins Lager” shows the point of view of the common man.
Wallensteins’s charismatic leadership has united men of different languages and backgrounds behind a common cause. They praise Wallenstein for the freedom he gives them while they look down on the Emperor who benefits from their labour. A farmer (Uli Pleßmann) complains that the soldiers ruin the land and a Capucine monk (Alex Werner) criticizes the soldiers for their godless way of life, yet the soldiers praise the war for the adventure and booty it gives them that they would never have otherwise. News comes that the Emperor wants troops from Spain to joins Wallenstein’s army, but the master-sentinel (Martin Seifert) sees this as a plot to undermine Wallenstein’s power. The soldiers ask the regiment leader Max Piccolomini to persuade Wallenstein not to follow the Emperor’s decree.
Thus, in this vibrant portrayal of camp life, Schiller gives us both a picture of unity but also the sources of division that will tear it apart. Moidele Bickel’s period costumes are beautifully colour-coded so that we can soon identify Croats from Saxons from Walloons just by their outfits. Save for the modern all-white background, the stage scene looks very much like a 17th-century painting come to life. Given its enormous size of 30 and 10-member onstage marching band, the uniformly impressive cast has no weak link and acts with an amazing unity of purpose.
In contrast to the openness of the first play, Ferdinand Wögerbauer gives the second two a very different look. These are played out in the corridors of power which Wögerbauer constructs from huge separate walls of various lengths in black or white that the stagehands move about to create the various interiors. Though of vastly different shapes and sizes, Wögerbauer’s rooms usually have openings to the back or long corridors leading into them from the side so that we often see characters appear or approach long before the characters do in their rooms. This reinforces the idea throughout both plays that forces are in motion beyond the control of the individual characters. The ever-shifting walls also brilliantly create the sense of a maze that cuts those in power off from the real world and captures them in a trap of their own making.
In “Die Piccolomini” we first meet the major players of this epic drama. Well-known film actor Klaus Maria Brandauer plays Wallenstein, Elke Petri his wife, Friederike Becht his daughter Thekla and Elisabeth Rath his sister the Countess Terzky, who has great influence over his actions. The title characters are Octavio Piccolomini (Peter Fitz), lieutenant-general in Wallenstein’s army and his most trusted friend, and Octavio’s son Max (Alexander Fehling).
In “Wallensteins Tod” Wallenstein’s world falls apart and with it that of all of his friends and family. After much hesitation Wallenstein finally decides to throw his lot in with the Swedes against the Emperor. Persuaded by Countess Terzky he reasons that submission to the Emperor will bury him in obscurity while opposing him he will at least have a chance to achieve greatness. This position as open traitor causes his once-loyal troops to abandon him along with his staunchest admirer Max, who seeks death in battle. Max’s death leads Thekla to seek death at Max’s grave. Meanwhile, Buttler (Jürgen Holtz), told by Octavio that Wallenstein had hindered his career, has remained by his commander with the sole purpose of revenge. He and his henchmen carry out the murders of Terzky, Illo and Wallenstein before Octavio arrives with orders to stop him.
Except for the Romeo and Juliet of the play, Max and Thekla, all the characters’ actions are morally dubious. Wallenstein may want to end the war to save Germany from further destruction, but to do so he has to become a traitor and his motives are not free of personal gain. Octavio may want to preserve the power of the Emperor but to do so he must betray his best friend and alienate his son. The great insight of Peter Stein is to show neither man as evil but as acting for a higher goal each truly feels is right. Buttler, in contrast, does comes off as purely evil since his motivation of personal revenge is so narrow. The play ends with Octavio receiving a message from the Emperor that he has been elevated to the rank of Prince (Wallenstein’s former position). He is supposed to look heavenwards full of pain. Stein, however, has Peter Fitz’s Octavio receive the news with deep resignation as if someone like the Emperor could never understand the pain it has cost Octavio to take the actions he has.
The performances are absolutely superb throughout the whole ten hours. One might wish that Brandauer’s Wallenstein suffered more when blow after blow strikes him in the third play. But Stein’s conception and Brandauer’s seems to be that Wallenstein’s success and his downfall is his optimism and belief in his destiny. As a devotee of astrology Wallenstein believes as he states in his great speech “Die Sternen lügen nicht” (“The stars do not lie”) that everything that happens is predetermined and has a purpose even if we cannot recognize it at the time. So Brandauer’s Wallenstein seems to approach each new calamity as a mystery whose higher purpose he must work out. Special mention must be made of Alexander Fehling as Max. As a pre-show announcement informed us, he had sprained an ankle and had to perform on crutches. Fehling turned this accident into part of his characterization, his physical weakness now seeming part of his inability to thwart the power of his father.
The ten-hour show has four intermissions including a one-hour interval for dinner. Food and drink are available in a tent adjacent to the Kindl-Halle, but bringing a picnic will save much time waiting in the various queues. After a summer pause from July 9-August 24, performances begin again on August 25 and continue to October 7. It’s an impeccably produced masterpiece of overwhelming impact. For further information see www.berliner-ensemble.de.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in TheatreWorld (UK) 2007-07-28.
Photo: (top) Klaus Maria Brandauer as Wallenstein with his soldiers; (upper middle) scene from Wallensteins Lager; (lower middle) Friederike Becht as Thekla and Alexander Fehling as Max; (bottom) Peter Fitz as Octavio Piccolomini. ©2007 Monika Rittershaus.
2007-07-28
Berlin, GER: Wallenstein