MEPHISTO Comes to Dramaten This Week

Germany, late 1920s. The actor Hendrik Höfgen is appreciated by both the audience and his colleagues at the local theater, but he desperately longs for the big break. He knows he is meant for bigger roles, on bigger stages! Like most of his comrades, he is a socialist and they watch with horror as National Socialism grows stronger. It is a changing, creative and violent time.

Just as his own career begins to take off, Hitler takes power and society changes overnight. Should Hendrik sacrifice his career and flee the country? Or should he caress the new leaders and continue his life as a rising star in the German theater?

Mephisto is a play about a man and a theater company who, without the knowledge of the post war world, try to find a path in a chaotic and threatening time. A story about small and big choices, compromises and survival instincts.

Director Natalie Ringler has had great success at Teater Galeasen with productions such as Vår klass and Irakisk Kristus. In 2021, she was awarded Svenska Dagbladet's Thalia prize.

Klaus Mann, son of the author Thomas Mann, left Germany when the Nazis took over in 1933. Mefisto was published in 1936 and the main character is based on Klaus Mann's former friend, the actor Gustaf Gründgens, who was nazi leader Hermann Göring's favorite and director of the Preussisches Staatstheater in Berlin.

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