The last thing a three-hour play needs is ponderous orchestral interludes, however beautifully composed they may be. Of course, I doubt Danton’s Death would be a three-hour play at all if it were directed and played with any sense of pacing. But the Kammerspiele’s production is deadly dull. Between this and my previous visit, I’m starting to think they’re a theatre to avoid.
Büchner’s play should be interesting—it’s a rather dramatic account of 1794 in France, when the leaders of the Revolution began to turn against one another. As Danton, Pierre Bokma makes unexpected choices and shows wide emotional range. Wolfgang Pregler is his perfect opposite as the “incorruptible” Robespierre. Anna Drexler is both strong and sympathetic as Danton’s wife Julie. In fact, the actors are almost uniformly excellent. (That “almost” excepts Benny Claessens, who plays the same character always: a fool with a sing-song voice. The fact that the audience sometimes laughs at his antics seems to encourage him to take them too far. They get tiring very quickly, and I experienced more than enough of them last time I was at the Kammerspiele.)
No, it’s the production that’s at fault here. We get one unchanging setting: a long table surrounded by chairs. The fact that the table is perpendicular to the front of the stage causes some sightline issues (cleverly resolved, in part, by the rotating camera atop the table), but its real crime is that it dominates the stage space. The result is a very static show—most scenes just involve characters sitting around talking, or perhaps standing to emphasize their heightened emotion. Nobody moves much. Now, I’m not against static, conversation-driven scenes, but three hours of that is a little much.
It’s not as though the budget wouldn’t have covered a better set. Seven-instrument orchestras, giant real-time projections, and an indoor cloud don’t come cheap. But none of those things are needed. No, what this shows needs is better staging and quicker pacing.
Stephan Bissmeier (Lacroix), Pierre Bokma (Georg Danton), and Kristof Van Boven (Camille Desmoulins). Photo: Julian Röder
My German Season 