MEPHISTO by Ariane Mnouchkine translated by Timberlake Wertenbaker Directed by Christopher Weare

Mephisto is one of the modern classics on artistic integrity and political commitment. Klaus Mann’s novel Mephisto, first published when Mann was in exile from the Nazis, was primarily an act of revenge against German actor Gustaf Grundgens. Mann, who worked with Grundgens, regarded him as a traitor for accepting Nazi patronage while his former colleagues were forced to flee the country. Ariane Mnouchkine’s adaptation of Mann’s Mephisto takes the emphasis off the “Mephisto” character who abandoned his communist roots for artistic ambition and collaborated with the Nazi regime, and places it onto the group of actors around him. We see a collection of socialists and incipient fascists, and w