Let’s begin with a ‘did you know…?’ So, did you know that more Shakespeare plays are performed each year in Germany than in England? It’s a shocker but absolutely true. This little known fact sums up the close relationship the Germans have had with Shakespeare since 1604, when Romeo and Juliet was performed by English actors in Nordlingen – a mere 40 or so years after the play was first performed in England.
In fact, many European readers first met the plays in German, thanks to Goethe, one of the country’s greatest writers, who gave an impassioned speech in praise of our Bard in 1771, when he was just 22.
Now Shakespeare’s Globe is celebrating this relationship with a season of events under the banner Shakespeare is German, a homage to the unique link between our countries in conjunction with the Goethe-Institut.
As Sabine Hentzsch, of the Goethe-Institut in London, said at the season’s launch: ‘Over the centuries, various famous German writers and poets have translated Shakespeare into German, with the effect that Shakespeare today might be easier to understand in German than in English.’ In fact, this is echoed by the German actor Norbert Kentrup – who played the Globe’s first Shylock in 1998 – when he said Shakespeare is ‘much better in German’.
This was demonstrated at the press launch by two actors who performed a scene of Romeo and Juliet in German. The richness of the language lends itself to translation and sounds simply beautiful, as spoken German does.
The director of education at Shakespeare’s Globe, Patrick Spottiswoode, lectures widely in Germany and said: ‘Shakespeare’s Globe has long had a relationship with Germany. Sam Wanamaker first met Norbert (Kentrup) in 1991 and was determined a German should be the first Shylock at the Globe. More than 18,000 German students visit the Globe every year – making it over half of our visiting overseas students.’
So what’s in it for you and your students of German? A whole host of delights, including film, discussions and lectures at Shakespeare’s Globe and the Goethe-Institut. A very good place to start is with the book Goethe on Shakespeare (Published by Globe Education) which brings together for the first time the German’s two essays Zum Shakespeares-Tag and Shakespeare und Kein Ende. Other highlights of the season include a discussion and film screening of hamlet_X, a mosaic of short videos in which author and director Herbert Fritsch dissects the drama of the Danish Prince. Definitely one for the students.
The wealth and range of German film adaptations, from silent to avant-garde, will be celebrated in a series of screenings and platform discussions at the Goethe-Institut. German responses to Shakespeare will be explored in a series of talks at the Globe, while in January there will be a screening of the 1920 silent film of Hamlet, starring Asta Nielsen in the title role, at BFI Southbank. This will be a world premiere of a new print of the film with music composed especially by Claire van Kampen and played live by six musicians from the Globe.
The season is another example of the innovative, imaginative work of Globe Education.
For further details of the events, take a look at www.shakespeares-globe.org. We would also like to point you towards the wonderful work of the Goethe-Institut , which is running the Think German campaign to promote German as a foreign language.
Image of Norbert Kentrup by John Tramper