81. On a Performance of Ibsen's “Brand”

On March 19, Berlin's Schiller Theater gave us a magnificent performance of Ibsen's "Brand". The deserving director of this institute, Raphael Löwenfeld, whom his audience unfortunately does not always follow with the right understanding, brought the Nordic Faust drama to a German stage for the first time. He based his performance on Passarge's translation. He has endeavored to shorten the poem to such an extent that it does not become a test of the audience's patience. Unabridged, it would play for six hours. Yesterday we only had to sit in the theater for three and a half. Nothing that was necessary to understand the whole was missing. The wonderfully irritating, the appealingly annoying main character of "Brand" stood before us. You could feel the futility of the struggle of a person who wants "all or nothing".

I would like to remember the performer of the Brand role. Yesterday evening was obviously an evening of honor for Eduard von Winterstein. I cannot say that he satisfied me. Nevertheless, I would like to praise him. If only he could decide to incorporate the excellent characterization, which he placed more in the body movements, into the speech itself! He spoke with fire, but with too even a fire. Even the lively pathos becomes monotonous when the modulation is missing.