The German soul, in a wheelchair

Wonderful musings on the German soul in a Correspondent's Diary from Frankfurt on Economist.com this week. (Yes, there is a German soul, and yes, you can glimpse it even in Frankfurt.) Sometimes, as history will attest, the soul does get a bit out of control ... Here is a snatch from today's entry on theatre:

I have suffered some enormous theatrical disappointments since being
in Germany. The worst was when I invited three friends to a performance
in Frankfurt of “Die Räuber” (“The Robbers”) by Friedrich Schiller, one
of the great classics of the German stage.

The first shock was to see one of the major characters in this 18th
century drama driving onstage in a golf buggy. Various other characters
played with tennis rackets and brawled about while a female pop-singer,
complete with drum kit, drowned any chance of enjoying the spoken word.
We were polite enough to stay till the interval then fled to a nearby
restaurant.

Still, hope springs eternal:

I’m hoping that October 4th will knock all this into a cocked hat. I
am booked to see Schiller’s “Wallenstein” played in a brewery in
Berlin. This 10-hour, three-part drama, thankfully done straight, has
been the theatrical event of the year.

Klaus Maria Brandauer, best known for playing the cynical Hoefgen in
the film “Mephisto” and the villain in James Bond’s “Never Say Never
Again”, portrays the eponymous hero in this epic about the Thirty Years
War. According to our own reviewer, Mr Brandauer is a bit monotone, but
I have also heard the view that he’s deliberately underplaying for
greater overall effect.

We've also since heard that Mr Braundauer has broken his toe, and may have to play the part in a wheelchair. Not a golf buggy, at least. But it will surely require superhuman restraint not to call his performance "limp".

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