A History of German Theatre (review)

The appearance of this volume on the history of German theater fills a void for English-speaking scholars and students of theater, comparative literature, European cultural history, and German studies, as well as theater practitioners interested in the unique evolution of theater in German-speaking Europe. Consisting of contributions by distinguished scholars from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the United States, and Canada, it is both ambitious in its aims and largely successful in attempting a historical narrative, a “stratified approach to history” (6), which avoids the rigidity of traditional, asynchronous periodization in favor of overlapping, parallel depictions. The first two chapters on medieval and baroque theater are left out of this approach, however, and the post-1945 contributions are somewhat less successful in this regard than the crucial discussions (chapters 3–6) of the intersecting and contrary aims of classicism, realism, romanticism and Sturm und Drang. In chapter 7 “The rise of the director, 1850–1939,” chapter 8 “Naturalism, expressionism and Brecht: Drama in dialogue with modernity, 1890–1960,” the following two chapters on architectural space and scenography in the twentieth century, and chapter 13 “Directors and actors in modern and contemporary German theatre,” tracing the role of the director provides a productive focus for different perspectives from modernism through postunification.

This history of theater is unique in giving equal importance to interdisciplinary contextualization rather than subordinating it to the recitation of the major figures and themes in relation to intellectual and political history; the latter discussion is not just supplemented but transformed by the former. For example, the story of the evolution of national theater includes not only the familiar triad Germany/France/Shakespeare (1720–1832), but also the beginnings of realism anchored in aesthetics of staging, in political and economic history of provincial and urban sites, and in sociologically informed insights on class and reception. This means that such a towering figure in the history of German theater as Richard Wagner is first discussed in conjunction with realist staging, and thus shown to partake in various developing currents, rather than being characterized as belonging discretely to a single period. Such an approach to the generally acknowledged seminal era of German theater also provides a strong background for later chapters, for example chapter 6, “The theatre of dissent from Sturm und Drang to Brecht,” or chapter 10, “Experiments with architectural space in the German theatre,” which begins with a discussion of nineteenth-century experimental spaces. This is not to say that individual chapters cannot stand alone; this balance is maintained well throughout, which makes the volume useful for a wide variety of readers: those wishing to gain a sophisticated historical understanding as well as those interested in a discrete period or perspective. The chapters on the history of nationalism’s influence (chapter 9) and interculturalism (chapter 14) achieve excellent syntheses of scattered English and German-language sources.

Despite the advantages of avoiding a teleological narrative or unifying methodology in this history, the reader must contend with some slipping definitions and contradictions along the way (e.g., differing implicit definitions of “national” or “realism” in different articles). Even so, one would wish that the authors had gone even further to include more discussion of tangential intersections of theater with other high and low cultural theatrical expressions (e.g., agitprop, street theater, workers’ pageants [Massenfestspiele], opera, operetta) as well as the influence of film and photography on modern scenography and direction. However, this well written, thoroughly researched, engaging book is leading the way and belongs on reference lists and in all university libraries.