Theaterdramaturgien von der Aufklärung bis zur Gegenwart by Evelyn Deutsch-Schreiner

Abstract

Reviewed by: Theaterdramaturgien von der Aufklärung bis zur Gegenwart by Evelyn Deutsch-Schreiner Dagmar C. G. Lorenz Evelyn Deutsch-Schreiner, Theaterdramaturgien von der Aufklärung bis zur Gegenwart. Vienna: Böhlau, 2016. 351 pp. The Graz-based theater scholar Evelyn Deutsch-Schreiner offers, in her study Theaterdramaturgien von der Aufklärung bis zur Gegenwart, an incisive, innovative approach to the history and practice of German-speaking theater from the Enlightenment to the present day with a focus on dramaturgy. Embedded in her project are analyses of major Austrian representatives and their interaction with German and non-German theater practices and personalities. Deutsch-Schreiner begins by examining the changing tasks and missions of the dramaturge as literary advisor to directors and theater companies, script and program designer in charge of programming and scheduling, market researcher, and hands-on consultant. These roles differ from one historical period to another and depend on the inclinations and talents of the individual dramaturges. Deutsch-Schreiner’s project is inclusive and far-reaching. It explores the history of German dramaturgy beginning with a pace-setting essay on Lessing and his theoretical and practical contributions to the development of German-speaking theater. The discussion then proceeds to markedly different dramaturges such as Schiller, Brecht, Heinar Kipphardt, Dieter Sturm, and the Swiss dramaturgy represented by the exile Kurt Hirschfeld. Finally, Deutsch-Schreiner records the entrance of female dramaturges into the traditionally male bastion by examining the work of Stefanie Carp and Nadine Jessen and their impact on contemporary theatrical practice. In the unfolding mosaic, Austrian dramaturgy, represented by Joseph Schreyvogel, Arthur Kahane, and Hermann Beil, figures prominently, both in its own right and as a force influencing and fertilizing German theater. Through their contacts with German and international actors and theorists and their appointments at German and international stages, these Austrian dramaturges transported the stage tradition of Vienna and Salzburg across Europe and, during the Nazi era, across the Atlantic. Deutsch-Schreiner’s approach is inclusive and supranational. She explores German dramaturgy and the genre of drama more generally within the cosmopolitan and increasingly professional context as part of European and Western conventions and aesthetics. She notes that the trajectory of the first theater journal, a model for Lessing’s undertakings, aimed to be international in character and fostered a universal concept of theater (31). Schiller, the first freelance dramaturge, likewise emphasized his cosmopolitism and envisaged [End Page 188] enlightened audiences. Still, Deutsch-Schreiner takes into consideration the dependency of the dramaturge upon local conditions and requirements, e.g. the Weimar stage, and she notes a change in paradigm in the late eighteenth century when the Burgtheater was named the German Nationaltheater. The influential Viennese dramaturge Joseph Schreyvogel perpetuated the Enlightenment tradition with Schiller as his model, but, as Deutsch-Schreiner writes, as a critic and practitioner he also supported Austrian authors such as Grillparzer, whom he discovered and mentored, thus providing new thematic and formal trends. His production of König Ottokars Glück und Ende, Deutsch-Schreiner argues, made Grillparzer’s play the iconic patriotic Austrian drama. The study also discusses the impact of the Austrian censorship laws since Maria Theresia on the history of theater as well as the stifling effect of the normative aesthetics and forms of expression designed to repress liberal ideas. By placing Arthur Kahane, Max Reinhardt’s first dramaturge, in a central position in her study, Deutsch-Schreiner stresses the importance of Vienna’s Jewish bourgeoisie as an innovative element in the development of theater. Relocating to Berlin, Kahane and Reinhardt played an important role in the cultural interchange between the two capitals and as an integrating force in northern and southern theater life. Deutsch-Schreiner traces these personalities’ activities at a variety of theaters and thematizes Kahane’s interest in American authors such as Eugene O’Neill, jazz, and modern musicals. For Deutsch-Schreiner Kahane’s death on the eve of the Nazi takeover (and the banning of his books) as well as Reinhardt’s death in exile mark the end of a vibrant theatrical culture, which, as she implies, was opportunistically invoked in the postwar era to appropriate Reinhardt’s theater as iconically Austrian. Following a review of...