The actor with the lover: Laurenz Wiegand (above) and Martin Radecke as Höfgen's lover Juliette. © Greiner
Landsberg - "The whole world is a stage and all women and men are mere players." What Shakespeare liked, Hendrik Höfgen from Klaus Mann's "Mephisto" also likes. Höfgen's 'asis' treatment of the Nazi regime was brought to the stage by Potsdam's New Globe Theatre as a grandiose cabaret piece.
Is it now Gustaf Gründgens, the Klaus Mann alias "Hendrik (not Heinz, not Henrik, with D, please!) Höfgen? Not yet, the author said, "is only a symbolic type." Or "ne dolle Type", as New Globe director Kai Schrickel lets the confused-crazy author Theophil Marder rattle in the constant chorus. Ne type, of which there were quite a few in the Nazi regime. For example, Gustaf Gründgens, whom the author Hermann Kesten specifically suggested to Klaus Mann as a model for a novel "of a homosexual careerist in the Third Reich". And the other characters in "Mephisto" also have real equivalents: "The Fat One" – Göhring, or "Barbara" – Erika Mann; So much for the Who's Who.
The New Globe picks up on this layer game and turns it further: the stage set swivels behind the red curtain, to the artist's dressing room. Martin Radecke plays a double role (stunningly well!): Höfgen's lover Juliette – Gründgens was homosexual – and as a conférencier at the same time the narrator, to whose words his "characters" play parallel – so that's Klaus Mann. And then there are the songs that give the piece the flair of "Cabaret" and turn it into a show. A hat that Schrickel puts on Mann's novel, an involvement of the (real) audience as (fictitious) spectators: "Welcome, Bienvenue!" After all, we're all just ordinary actors. Which brings the New Globe back to Mann's original question: that of the followers, always focusing on his own well-being. Like Höfgen, who twists and draws to satisfy his greed for admiration. Not unsympathetic, isn't it? You can almost understand him, right? Nazi friend Hans Miklas also comes across as a human being. Simply despising him doesn't work. And how similar his views are initially to those of the communist Otto Ulrich. Ups. It is not for nothing that both roles are cast by Marco Litta – a double-cast play that Schrickel consistently pulls through. Andreas Erfurth not only plays the confused marten, but also "The Fat One". Only Laurenz Wiegand as Höfgen has only one role. After all, Höfgen carries the dichotomy within himself. Like each of us, we ordinary people. Frightening.
Nonsense and horror
Schrickel's level play also works splendidly in other respects: We bob to "The night is not just for sleeping", giggle to the beach funny scene with rudimentary text of "La Mer" – namely "la mer" – flinch when "Heil" rhymes with "horny" and squirm when Radecke alias Conférencier/Juliette (stunningly good!) "Auf, auf zum Kampf" sings, of course in the 1930 version rewritten for the SA. Drop heights from blazing nonsense to enigmatic smiles to silent horror.
The fact that this works so well is mainly due to the ensemble. First and foremost Radecke: Wow! – we had already mentioned, we know. He is the puppeteer whose characters dance according to his words. And who, as Juliette herself, falls victim to his words and has to go into exile like a man. A perfect match on the ridge between charm, vileness, "assy smile" and seriousness is offered by Laurenz Wiegand as Höfgen. There is nothing ridiculous, but despite all the noble morality, greed always shines through. Jessica von Wehner shines, also vocally, as Barbara or Dora Martin. And Nora Backhaus meanders between the seductive Nicoletta and the perfect, coarse Lotte Lindenthal – alias Emmy Göhring.
You can feel the "heart and soul" that the ensemble and director have put into this piece and which Erfurth also mentions in his traditional closing remarks to the audience. And that's why the piece goes to the heart. The New Globe Theater Potsdam can do it: theatre as it should be.