Wal­len­stein

Following his “Don Carlos”, Jan Philipp Gloger tackles another of Friedrich Schiller’s great dramatic works, putting “Wallenstein” back on the stage of the Staatstheater after a 65-year break. The play is set 16 years into the Thirty Years War. Marauding troops prowl the country. Since there is too much to be gained from hostilities, few people under arms are interested in an armistice. Wallenstein is in a dilemma: should he take his army and switch sides for his own benefit? He vacillates while his officers whisper amongst themselves. They include his most trusted aide, whose son is in love with Wallenstein’s daughter.

The Wallenstein trilogy is part family drama, part political thriller. Ever one to mistrust those in power, Schiller paints a picture in which war, love and economic concerns are fatally entangled and noble ideals are edged out by realpolitik and self-interest. And so we are witness to the crumbling of the heroic image of a famous general, who also left his mark on the area around Nuremberg.