Mephisto

MEPHISTO. Adapted from the novel by Klaus Mann by Ariane Mnouchkine, trans. Timberlake Wertenbaker. The Actor's Gang, Los Angeles. 3 November 2001.

"Why blame me? I haven't done anything. What can I do? I am only an actor." These are the concluding lines of the play, delivered by Hendrik Hofgen, the one-time communist actor in an agitprop group, who stands on stage as the head of Hitler's Berlin State Theater. He has deserted the communist theater group, his black girlfriend, and his lewish colleagues for the glamour and opulence of the Nazi regime. He plays Mephisto to the German Faust, onstage and off.

Klaus Mann (son of Thomas) wrote the novel in 1936 as a roman à clef about the decisions the theater artists of his time were making during the rise of fascism. Hofgen represents Gustaf Gründgens, the actor/director who was married to Mann's sister, Erika. The events onstage closely resemble those in the lives of the real players. In real life, Gründgens was reportedly homosexual, as were Klaus and Erika Mann. The black girlfriend signals this unacceptable sexual partner. In the play, as in real life, Gründgens's marriage to Erika dissolves as she goes on to found an anti-fascist cabaret and Gründgens becomes part of the Nazi state. The novel was banned in Germany until Ariane Mnouchkine's stage version appeared in Berlin in 1979. I was fortunate to see that production, where black market copies of the novel were sold in the foyer. Legal debates with Gründgens's heirs finally resulted in the release of the publication rights.

Mnouchkine both wrote the play adaptation and directed the production. The play is composed of...