Mephisto

Actor Hendrik Höfgen embarks on a dizzying ascent when he is engaged by the Prussian State Theatre in Berlin. After his triumph in the role of Mephistopheles, he makes a pact with the devil himself. The fascist prime minister appoints him as director of the theatre and Höfgen finds himself playing the role of his lifetime: manoeuvring between conforming and rebelling, between benefiting from and criticising the system, between art and power.

“Mephisto” is Klaus Mann’s devastating account of the life of actor and director Gustaf Gründgens, who was married to Mann’s sister Erika from 1925 to 1928. Banned in Germany for decades, it is one of the most controversial novels of post-war German society: a roman à clef about the responsibility of the individual in a fascist state.

Jette Steckel was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen for the first time in 2024 with her celebrated Munich debut, “Die Vaterlosen” (The Fatherless). She is an expert in the imaginative dramatizations of novels and a master of visually powerful, poetic feasts of acting.

“Are we willing to tear down the boundaries of our beliefs for our own benefit? In order to make art possible, would we be willing to deprive it of its freedom and let it become a political plaything? These are questions that currently arise in the light of growing right-wing sentiment in our country. When do people, and especially artists, become opportunists?”

– Jette Steckel, director