The Freedom of the German Repertoire

THE FREEDOM OF THE GERMAN REPERTOIRE PARTLY FOR HISTORICAL REASONS the German theatre is in the fortunate position of having more than a hundred and sixty permanent houses playing almost to capacity every night for eight to twelve months of the year. It is a matter of civic pride that each municipality should have a subsidised opera house and theatre rivalling those of other towns in size, quality, and the extent of its repertoire. The historical· reasons are that each of the sovereign rulers of the former kingdoms, dukedoms, and principalities, however small or politically impotent his dominions, regarded it as his duty to foster the arts, and usually established a small theatre at his court, both for the value of plays and operas in themselves and in order to out~ shine his neighbors. Herzog Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen is only the most famous of these. In 1674 Herzog Georg Wilhelm of Celle, which even today has a population of only 60,000, invited the Italian baroque architect Arighini to build him a court theatre seating 361. The same story could be illustrated from a score of other places. The cultural orientation of these courts was towards Paris, whose whims were imitated· in matters of fashion, furnishing, architecture and dress; in some courts French was the only language permitted. Performances in the court theatres were thus predominarttly of French plays and Italian operas. The growing nationalism of the time, however, demanded that before Germany could consider herself a great power, she should become unified, politically and culturally. The German language must be shown capable of creating a literature, particularly a dramatic literature, to rival those of England, France, and Spain. Hence the surprising number of classical German plays with a political content; hence, in our own day, the political concerns of such dramatists as Weiss and Hochhuth. When Germany was unified in the nineteenth century, the former states usually retained control of their own cultural affairs, extending the former rivalry between them to the new municipalities. There was, in any case, such a large pool of trained theatrical talent searching for avenues of expression that the new municipalities became the natural successors of the former princes, and began to subsidise theatres as a public serVIce. The inevitable result is that Germany has never known the concen~ tration of cultural life in the capital city that has been the pattern 237 238 MODERN DRAMA December in France, Britain, and the United States. Provincial "tryoutsH are unthinkable under these circumstances, and so are ad hoc productions with a director, designer, stars and lesser actors engaged for one piay only and for a run of unpredictable length. 'Show business" has hardly ever existed in the serious German theatre, though there are still a few privately-owned theatres, founded in the ninetenth century and working without subsidies on a purely commercial basis. Even these, however, are to some extent·· controlled by labour agreements: actors' contracts stipulate a minimum of 30 performances, and a maximum of 100. These theatres finance themselves by various kinds of subscription tickets and audience societies, and also by selling tickets at the door: they may need to sell between DM. 1500 and HM. 3000 per day in order to balance the budget, but mostly manage this quite easily. The private theatres, however, are dying out and are not likely to be replaced. Each of them performs about five hig~ boulevard comedies per year, working with established actors who are paid higher salaries than are customary elsewhere. In 1968 There's a Girl in My Soup was the most popular of these plays. The subsidised theatres, on the other hand, are committed to a more "literary" and "cultural" type of drama, and mount, on an average, twelve new pro· ductions a year each. The theatre in Germany is commonly regarded as a place for the discussion of aesthetic, ideological and political matters, and hence as a part of the general education of the public, equivalent in status to universities, colleges, art galleries, museums, and symphony orchestras. There is such a heavy demand for regular performances of serious drama that only permanent companies resident in each of the major towns and...