Mefisto for ever

Theatre after the triumph of the far right

They’ve won! The victory of the far right changes the lives of the actor Kurt Köpler and his colleagues at the capital’s most important theatre at a stroke. They are abruptly forced to make a choice. Some of them leave and go into exile. Others remain and take part in active resistance. Kurt Köpler decides to carry on the struggle from the inside out, armed with the weapons of the artist: beauty and authenticity. But hasn’t beauty completely lost its worth when it is tolerated and manipulated by the government? And how close is authenticity to a sham? Köpler becomes entangled in the regime’s nets, and also in those of his own artistic choices.

Guy Cassiers and Tom Lanoye have adapted Klaus Mann’s famous novel Mephisto, about the fortunes of an actor under the Third Reich, into a contemporary fable about art and politics, integrity and betrayal, passion and opportunism. Mefisto for ever combines the satirical earnestness of Tom Lanoye, the technological theatricality of Guy Cassiers and a strong cast to form an explosive cocktail. Today’s theatre about today’s issues.