University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln zz Theatre & Film Faculty Publications

1995

Sternheim's Burger Schippel and the Theatre Scene in

William Grange University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected]

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Grange, William, "Sternheim's Burger Schippel and the Theatre Scene in Cologne" (1995). zz Theatre & Film Faculty Publications. 4. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/theaterfilmfacpub/4

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in zz Theatre & Film Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Published in WESTERN EUROPEAN STAGES VII No. 1 (1995): 99-102. Copyright © 1995 Center for the Advanced Study of the Theatre Arts, CUNY.

Sternheim's Burger Schippel and the Theatre Scene in Cologne

William Grange

Cologne has for centuries been one of the business expenses, not for their production costs. The most important cities in Europe; wealth and comfort Senftopchen ("little mustard pot") presents are nothing new here. Yet unlike other German cities transvestite shows on a regular basis and the with perhaps an equal amount of prosperity it has Theater am Sachsenring bills itself a "Gewalt never had a theatre history to match its stature as a Kabarett," or "cabaret of violence." Performances major metropolitan center on the Continent. It has in both venues are considered eccentric but not indeed had a troublesome and complicated objectionable. The Piccolo, the Horizont, the Orania, relationship with theatre despite the fact that it is the and the Theater im Bauturm are companies receiving fourth largest city in Germany (after , Hamburg, outlays both from the Cologne Culture Office and and ). from the Cultural Ministry of North There are no individuals one associates with Rhine-Westphalia. The smallest of them is the the foundation of a theatre tradition in Cologne, the Piccolo, currently presenting Dario FO'S Tutta casa, way one thinks of Lessing with Hamburg, Iffland letto, e chiesa along with Jane Martin's Talking With. with Mannheirnm or Immermann with Dusseldorf. The Horizont has an ambitious season this year, Jacques Offenbach was a native of Cologne, but he of presenting three outstanding German plays on course made a name for himself elsewhere. Several week-ends. This fall their repertoire will consist of historical factors have contributed to Cologne's Bruckner's Elisabeth von England, Goetz's comedy comparative dwarfishness as a theatre center; chief Ingeborg, and Kokoschka's Expressionist thriller among them was the occupation of the city and the Morder, Hofiung der Frauen. The Urania is entire Rhineland region by the French 1794, an alternating Dale Wesserman's One Flew Over the occupation which lasted until 1815. During that Cuckoo 's Nest with Yorca's House ofsernarda Alba. period Cologne's business class and leading citizens The Theater im Bauturm is the newest of this group manifested little interest in developing theatre as a as well as the most energetic; they are currently means to maintain its German identity. Neither did running Shakespeare's Macbeth and Joe Orton's Loot they concern themselves with promoting theatre as a in hll-time alternating repertoire; two other worthy trademark of the city the way their fall-length plays will join the repertoire in November. counterparts in Hamburg, Frankfurt, and other Cologne has two unique theatres also worth commercial centers had begun to do. Cologne mentioning; one is the Kumede (the name in the local furthermore never benefited from the presence of a dialect for "comedy"), which presents, as its name court in its midst to foster theatre as an object of implies, comedies in this nearly incomprehensible aristocratic pride. As a result, theatre in Cologne dialect, Kolsch. The other is the Volkstheater developed slowly and with difficulty and it was not Millowitsch, which concentrates on old farce from the until the twentieth century that an ongoing theatre Wilhelmine and the Weimar periods, presented on a tradition became well-established here. long-run basis. Its star is the octogenarian Willy At its center is the municipal theatre, the Millowitsch, who has been a fixture in Cologne Schauspielhaus. The repertoire this fall includes Carl theatre life since the 1940s, starring in farce comedies Sternheim's Biirger Schippel, Brecht's Der gute that have played to full houses for decades. This fall Mensch von Sezuan and the Broadway musical he and his colleagues are presenting Scholbmeister Fiddler on the Roof The Schauspielhaus also Bollman by Max Reimann. Millowitsch has long operates two small studio theatres, the Kalk Halle and been a celebrated figure in Cologne's theatre life, and the West End. Other theatres in the city are much less his birthday, January 8, has in the past been cause for well endowed (the Schauspielhaus this year will municipal celebration. The question in the minds of receive a subsidy of about $22,000,000) and are less many Millowitsch audience members now is, who can wedded to Establishment tastes. They likewise are replace him? taking few chances. ~t the Cologne Schauspielhaus, Torsten These theatres receive grants for their Fischer7sproduction of Burger Schbpel, the landmark Brlrger Schippel at the Cologne Schauspiel. Photo: Klaus Lefebvre satire on Wilhelrninian manners and morals appears at opening scene, in which Thekla mourns the rece~t first to be a tribute to bygone days of unquestioned loss of her fianct and Jenny tries gently to comfort loyalty to Kaiser and Kuchen, to crown and country. her. It is almost as if it were a seduction scene; and Above the proscenium arch is emblazoned "Dern then one realizes that in Fischer's conception, it is. Deutschen Volke," a duplication of the motto (which Jenny caresses Thekla's hips, breasts, and neck; the means "dedicated to the German people") above the bust of Bismarck gazes stoically at the proceedings, main entry to the Reichstag in Berlin. On the floor while the audience senses that surely, the Kaiser center stage sits a large bust of what appears to be himself would disapprove of such goings-on. Bismarck, crowned with a laurel wreath of gold. He would approve, however, of the Against the stage left wall one detects the shadow of upstanding men who soon make their entrance, the Hohenzollem coat of arms. namely the goldsmith Tilmann Hicketier and his Those appearances soon give way to other, companions Woke and Krey. Any Kaiser would be more significant appearances. The setting is less proud of these model citizens, one a court official, the official and more domestic; it is actually a bourgeois other an owner of a printing business. Yet once living room, in the center of which sits an overstuffed again, first appearances give way to what is really red sofa. The stage floor is also red; so are the walls. going on; these men, as well as the women, are really The floor is set at an angle of about 60"; "How are targets of Sternheim's brilliant attack on the actors going to negotiate that floor?" one Wilhelminian sense of upright middle class morality. immediately wonders. The languorous entrance of The solid German Biirgertum is about to be Katja Bellinghausen as Thekla Hicketier and Caroline punctured, deflated and fall flat on its face. Schreiber as her stepmother Jenny Hicketier answers That happens with the entrance of Dirk Bach that question, as they move across it very carefully. as Paul Schippel, a penurious clarinet player eager to One sudden, non-calculated move could result in a join the middle class. First he must prove himself as severely sprained ankle, or at best in an embarrassing a tenor in the quartet Hicketier has formed for an pratfall. These are supposed to be Wilhelminians, upcoming local competition. They have heard that after all, with a pronounced sense of dignity and Schippel can hit an "A" just below high C; if he can decorum. The actresses slowly progress through their do that, there is little doubt that they will win the gold laurel of this year's competition. Bach's dueling with pistols for the favors of 'lhekla She, of entrance, however, is a sight gag unto itself. The course, cares for neither one of them and is sleeping man stands about five feet, three inches tall and with the local noblemen. Schippel somehow wins the weighs approximately two hundred pounds. He is duel (Krey faints after Schippel misfires his weapon), dressed in "the only clothes I own," and in designer and with a triumphant "Ich bin Biirger!" Schippel Carol Brands' conception he looks as though they are confers upon himself the title he so diligently has the only clothes he's ever worn. When he stands next sought. Bach's performance as Schippel is to the elegantly tuxedoed six foot, five inch form of underplayed, in contrast to the bombast employed by Marcus Kiepe (who plays Krey and weighs only about Alexander Grill as Hicketier and his two bourgeois 160 pounds) on the the steeply inclined stage Kiepe compatriots, the aforementioned Marcus Kiepe and stands upstage of Schippel and towers over him. The Karl-Ernst Mercker as Wolfe. Director Fischer has result is an image that endures throughout the staged the production as if these characters were performance. These are creatures who have two-dimensional; they must move slowly due to the heretofore inhabited different worlds entirely. They steep rake of the stage, and moving up- and speak in the forced "oficialese" of the Wilhelmine downstage requires both concentration and dexterity. years, a patois which one might have read on signs in The front lighting throws deep shadows across the railway stations and in government pronouncements, floor and up the walls. but which no one actually spoke. If they had they The strong contrast of the shadows to the would have appeared ridiculous and they could not live figures on stage complements designer Herbert have understood one another. Schgfer's walls made of paper. The actors cut holes Those are exactly the circumstances in which in the walls, tear them apart, fall through them, and these characters find themselves. One misunder- ultimately destroy the walls in the course of every standing leads to another until finally Krey and performance; they must be rebuilt and repainted every Schippel find themselves on "a field of honor," time Biirger Schippel is presented. They represent the

mrger Schippel at the Cologne Schauspiel. Photo: Klaus Lcfebvre

101 fragile "house of cards'' that was Wilhelmine society. easy to deflate. The audiences who see this play in It looked solid and substantial; it was home to a the Cologne Schauspielhaus are almost wholly prosperous, yet prejudiced, belligerent, and bourgeois, but this production does not attempt to self-satisfied middle class. When proletarians like deflate their values. It attempts rather to make the Paul Schippel finally gained entrance to Wilhelmine aforementioned historical parallels more easily society, they discovered the place was a shambles. accessible. Dick Bach, for example, is a well known This production presumes that a parallel television performer; he is almost cuddly at times in exists between the days of Chancellor Otto von his desire to become a Biirger. The audience can Bismarck and those of Chancellor Helmut Kohl. The almost imagine him, or someone like him from contrast then between the bourgeois and the or Chernnitz, going into a Mercedes proletarian was obvious. So is the one now between showroom for the first time in his life and simply the smug and prosperous West German and his gazing at an object he never imagined he might own. shabby counterpart in the East. The East German At the same time, audiences may be reluctant wants what the West Geman has, and as a German to see themselves in the character of Tillmann feels he's entitled to it. An unforeseen set of Hicketier, yet the production implies that this eircumstanees has thrown the two together, just as in pharisaical Philistine is one of them. Alexander Grill the play. The parallels which director Fischer draws plays Hicketier as a "man without qualities," a man are not always accurate; Sternheim, for example, with possessions (such as his sister, whom he must pointed to the emptiness of bourgeois German values marry off), stature in his community (which he must in this play, but Fischer views Schippel as a man defend at all costs), and a comfortable life. willing to accept middle class values without question. Audiences in Cologne are extremely comfortable, and Sternheim saw the bourgeoisie in Germany the production makes no effort to dislodge them from as a destructive force and as such its pomposity was that position.