Photographer：© Arno Declair

Reviews

In Deutsches Theater, he (Sebastian Hartmann) abandoned all narrative levels and devoted himself to revealing his subjective and strange, associative world.

German Stage Art

The Deutsches Theater Berlin version of Der Zauberberg pursues another kind of authenticity. It belongs to the reality of drama, which is not deception, but essentially speculation.

Contemporary Drama

Recommendation of the Committee

For the Deutsches Theater Berlin version of Der Zauberberg, director Sebastian Hartmann abandoned the writer's perspective, so the play is  based more on a "nightmare" structure, and the result is intentionally and superbly "out of control." Post dramatic performance—like repetition, dance and choral segments—dominated, and the use of the lens expands the view of the back and side of the stage. The characters in padded, cotton tights move painstakingly on the empty stage, each looking strange and as if they have no self. "I'm abandoned by the world." --In the empty theater, when the pandemic swept the world, such sentences showed great power.

Cast

Performers: Elias Arens, Manuel Harder, Markwart Müller-Elmau, Linda Pöppel, Birgit Unterweger, Cordelia Wege, Niklas Wetzel

About Sebastian Hartmann

Sebastian Hartmann was born in 1968 in Leipzig; he went on to study acting for stage and screen at the Hans Otto Drama School, Leipzig. In 2016, he opened the international Ingmar Bergman Festival with Huset vid Natten Ände. This year's invitation to the Theatertreffen is the third for him (Krieg und Frieden: Centraltheater Leipzig (2013); Erniedrigte und Beleidigte, after Fjodor M. Dostojevski: Staatsschauspiel Dresden (2019); and Der Zauberberg, after Thomas Mann: Deutsches Theater Berlin, (2021).

About the Berliner Theatertreffen

The Berliner Theatertreffen is the largest and most important German-language theatre festival. It is known as one of the world's three major theatre festivals, together with the Festival d'Avignon in France and the Edinburgh International Festival in Britain. Compared with the other two festivals, the Berliner Theatertreffen focuses more on experimenting with the internal structure of the drama, and the advancement and modernity of the external meaning of the drama. The Berliner Theatertreffen embodies the direction of contemporary society and the highest level of theatre.

About Deutsches Theater Berlin

The Deutsches Theater in Berlin is a theatrical institution with a permanent and highly-acclaimed ensemble. Behind its classical façade, the Deutsches Theater building on Schumannstraße is home to three stages: the main stage, built in 1850, with its intimate auditorium that seats 600; the "Kammerspiele," established by Max Reinhardt in 1906 for modern drama, which holds some 230 spectators; and the Box, a compact black box theatre space located in the Kammerspiele foyer with seating for 80, which opened in 2006.