Bennewitz, Goethe, Faust: German and Intercultural Stagings by David G. John (review)

Abstract

David G. John, Bennewitz, Goethe, Faust: German and Intercultural Stagings. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012.329 pp.Goethe's Faust is not only Goethe's most performed work but arguably the closest Goethe came to his own ideal of Weltliteratur. Relatively little, however, has been written about the history of non-Westem Faust performances or, for that matter, about some of the directors who have made directing Faust on international stages their life's work. Considering the essential roles that performance studies, GDR history, and intercultural exchange currently play in German Studies, David G. John's monograph provides a timely introduction to an important figure in East German theater.John not only suggests that Fritz (1926-95), previously overlooked in almost all histories of theater, in fact towers above any other German director, including Peter Stein (7), but also argues that deserves a place alongside the twentieth century's greatest intercultural innovators. Each of Bennewitz's Faust productions explicitly engages with the linguistic, cultural, economic, political, and even racial environment in which it was staged. Citing the connection that Carl Weber has drawn among twentieth-century theater practitioners who use foreign impulses as models, from Bertolt Brecht to Antonin Artaud, Jerzy Grotowsky, Peter Brook, and Richard Schechner, John seeks to add to this legacy (10).Beyond elevating this director to his place on the pedestal of creativity, John also uses Bennewitz's East German Faust productions as a lens through which to read GDR sociopolitical history. By comparing Bennewitz's multiple Faust stagings, including four productions of Faust I and II, the book offers an unusual opportunity to explore Goethe's classic drama in artistic, political, and cultural terms, both in Germany and internationally (5). began his directing career as an East German true believer (24), and his evolution from card-carrying member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) to reluctant critic of the 1980s GDR status quo proves to be an intriguing artistic reflection of changing East German public opinion. His most successful Faust staging ran at the Deutsches Nationaltheater in Weimar for ninety-seven performances between 1981 and 1994. Additionally, beginning in 1970, received approval for many trips to India and its surrounding countries, resulting in a peculiar phenomenon: Bennewitz is a hero of the stage for many Indian and Filipino actors, academics, and theater folk, even if most in his own land have forgotten him (22).John's study consists of a biographical introduction; interviews with East German directors, who comment on Bennewitz's work as well as the pragmatics of directing in East Germany; commentary on Bennewitz's three Faust productions in East Germany (1965-67,1975, 1981), his 1995 Faust in Meiningen, and his stagings in New York (in English), Bombay (in Hindi), and Manila (in Tagalog); and sixty pages of appendixes documenting the contents of the archive. …