Max Reinhardt Panel at Jewish Culture Days Berlin Examines Dispossessed Theater Legacy

A panel at the Jüdische Kulturtage Berlin confronts the legacy of Max Reinhardt and the responsibility today's theaters bear toward it. Born in 1873 in Baden bei Wien, Reinhardt shaped Berlin's stage landscape more than almost any other figure. His reputation as a "Theatermagier" took root in 1905 at the Berliner Ensemble, where a real-wood forest set for Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream was hailed as revolutionary. Nearly a century later, in 2002, director Leander Haußmann placed a forest on the same revolving stage for his own Midsummer Night's Dream; critics dismissed it as kitsch. The original stage-set model of the 1905 wood forest can still be seen at the Humboldt Forum in the exhibition Berlin Global. Reinhardt envisioned a theater "that leads people beyond themselves into a cheerful and pure air of beauty." The Freitag article, which carries the subtitle "Enteignet und ausgelöscht," ties the discussion to Reinhardt's expropriation and erasure; further details appear in the magazine's current issue.