Ariane Mnouchkine’s:

MEPHISTO

Based on the 1936 Novel by Klaus Mann
Translated by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Directed by Christopher Weare
With the Full Mechanicals Repertory Company
Original Set Design by Peter Krummeck
Lighting Design by Daniel Galloway
Costume Design by Leigh Bishop

Ariane Mnouchkine’s theatrical adaptation of the novel Mephisto (by Klaus Mann) is to be staged at the UCT Arena Theatre by The Mechanicals.

Mephisto is one of the modern classics on artistic integrity and political commitment.

Klaus Mann’s 1936 novel Mephisto, first published when Mann was in exile from the Nazis, was primarily an act of revenge against German actor Gustaf Grundgens. Mann, who worked with Grundgens, regarded him as a traitor for accepting Nazi patronage while his former colleagues were forced to flee the country. Ariane Mnouchkine’s adaptation of Mann’s Mephisto takes the emphasis off the “Mephisto” character who abandoned his communist roots for artistic ambition and collaborated with the Nazi regime, and places it onto the group of actors around him. We see a collection of socialists and incipient fascists, and watch how they react to Hitler’s steady climb to power. Where does art stop and life begin? The question is vital, and fatal to them all.

Ariane Mnouchkine is a world renowned French theatre director. Mnouchkine and her company, the Theatre du Soleil, came to the attention of the English speaking world with the 1970 production about the French Revolution, 1789. Today Mnouchkine is recognised as one of the first women directors to achieve an international reputation and her productions, spanning from Shakespeare to contemporary drama, have been widely acclaimed as being at the forefront of twentieth-century theatre.

Mephisto is about the devil in all of us. Based on a real life character, Gustaf Grundgens, the play shows how easy it is for artists to sell out to the state (in this case Nazi Germany), and how impossible it is to be ‘only an actor’ when the society around you is in political turmoil. The play examines the impact of fascism on the artistic integrity of a whole bunch of actors. It is a play which is both a fascinating historical document and a paradigm of any power game where moral instinct is sacrificed to political expediency.

Mnouchkine has said she sees the work more as a metaphor about collaboration than as an indictment of a particular actor. The play raises interesting contemporary questions.

Mephisto, is performed by the full Mechanicals Company and directed by the acclaimed Christopher Weare.

Mephisto plays in the Arena Theatre from 7 to 24 July on the following days:
7 (preview), 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 17 (@15h00), 19, 21 (15h00 & 20h00), 23 & 24 July at 20h00

Tickets cost R100 with seating concessions at R80 & R60
BOOKINGS on 021 480 7129 or by email

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