Theatre
Mephisto (Barbican) The Normal Heart (Royal Court) The Rivals (Bristol Old Vic)
An unforgettable film
Christopher Edwards
This is a stage version of Klaus Mann's novel Mephisto — a book which has an interesting history. Klaus was the eldest son of Thomas Mann and grew up in Germany during the Twenties. When he, lived in Hamburg he met, wrote for and acted with the celebrated German actor Gustaf Grundgens who Mann later used as the model for his fictional character Hen- dnk Hofgen. The novel plots the rise t° fame of a leading German actor wh°se conscience and ambition allow him t° move with the times; he starts out in Hamburg as a socialist but, with an eye for the main chance, takes up with the Nail regime in Berlin. Mephisto was written in 1936 but publication in West Germany was delayed for years during Grundgens's 11fe" time. After his suicide in 1963 his family tried to block moves to publish the book on the grounds that it was defamatory .and even by 1980 it was only available in a, pirated West German edition. The event that provoked serious public interest in the novel was the visit to West Berlin in 1980 by Ariane Mnouchkine's French troupe and their adaptation of the book for the theatre. Suddenly a paperback edition appeared which sold 130,000 copies in .1g1 weeks and several years later a brilhan film based on the novel was made by Istvan Szabo. It is against the powerful impression created by Szabo's film that any attempt to reclaim the piece for the theatre has to struggle. This is ironic because if ever a work owed its reputation to the force and interpretative power of the theatre then it is Mephisto. But it should not, after all, prove an insuperable task. Mann's story belongs to and breathes the very life of the theatre. From 1923 to 1933 the story revolves around a community of actors which can, convincingly, be regarded as a model of German society through this Period. The company contains Social Democrats, Communists and National Socialists and the level of political debate backstage between the characters is both plausible and, by normal standards of theatre, pretty high. In addition there are Plenty of opportunities to enact the politi- cal debates not just at one but at two removes. There are several telling com- munist revue sketches staged at the 're- volutionary cabaret' in Hamburg as well as rehearsals for Goethe's Faust and an adroit deployment of the last scene from Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. Unfortu- nately this revival of the Mnouchkine version fails to reclaim the work. It is remote, limp and rather perfunctory. You are left thinking of the film. In an interview given before the opening night the leading actor, Alan Rickman, invited us to 'forget the film'. The remark seems rather plaintive now for it was precisely the interpretation of Hofgens in the film that was so unforgettably theatri call It was a wildly flamboyant piece of acting at times but the German actor Caught superbly the character's demonic appetite for power and personal success at the cost of scruple and friendship. It also expressed the political hysteria of the epoch. None of these qualities is captured at the Barbican and part of the responsibi- lity would seem to lie with Mr Rickman's muted, brooding and somewhat defeated- seeming Hofgens. But the whole direction of the production is tired and unambitious and we are exposed yet again to Adrian Noble's passion for vaudeville techniques; Y°I1 might reasonably think that the RSC had done all it could with red noses and bowler hats after King Lear, The Comedy of Errors and Peter Barnes's last play but here they are popped on again. One is tempted to conclude that as the director had nothing new to say about this piece he should have left it to someone who did. This is a transfer from New York of LaTY Kramer's play The Normal Heart. Its subject is the outbreak of Aids amongst the homosexual community in New York and the fight to have the disease recognised by the authorities. The play is written from the inside and projects a shrill and panic- stricken ghetto atmosphere which is well caught by Geoff Rose's collage set of wsPaper headlines announcing: 'Gay ,Lague' 'Communion Wines In Aids 13ah and . . . 'Make Love In Gloves To Beat Aids'. This is an 'issue' play, as the following representative extract suggests: `This is not a civil rights issue, this is a contagion issue.' Perhaps it is a 'conspiracy issue' as well. Is there in fact a conspiracy to conceal the disease because many of the sufferers are not just homosexual but Jewish as well? Are the victims being punished for their promiscuity? The ques- tions veer from the analytical to the hyster- ical . . . could the disease have been avoided if 'they' had allowed homosexuals to marry?
The play is packed with passionate argu- ment, tears, bitterness and the angry de- nunciation of the Mayor of New York for failing to make funds available to the homosexual community. All these qualities give the piece a certain noisy force even though, artistically, the writing is of little worth. In particular the domestic scenes between the two lovers Ned and Felix seem clumsy and sentimental although it is this relationship that unexpectedly gives the play its closing emotional power. Felix contracts the terrible disease and the actor Paul Jesson dies onstage with a grace and unaffected dignity that is very moving. It is a delicate climax to an otherwise strident evening.
There is space only to recommend warmly the Bristol Old Vic's production of The Rivals, which runs until 19 April.
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