Actors

Theater in Vienna 1900

PAUL SCHLENTHER (1890-1898) Writer *Aug. 20, 1854 Insterburg (East Prussia), +April 30, 1916 Berlin Schlenther made Vienna the Mecca of German speaking theatre. He established a new era of traditional as well as modern contemporary theatre in the Burgtheater, which would continue to the present day. He paid strong attention to more liberate forms in direction, and promoted the shift from traditional classic acting style to a more modern and deliberate approach. Aiming at a simplification of aesthetics, what later on will lead to the renowned Bauhaus style in Germany, the set and lighting design demonstrated a turn away from naturalism to impressionism, as well as art nouveau. As a presenter of modern drama, the press criticized him for his eager support of the naturalistic playwrights, like Ibsen and Hauptmann, as well as, Anzengruber and Schnitzler. Some of his most important programming was: Schiller cycle, directed by Hugo von Thimig on the occasion of the Schiller jubilee (1905). A tribute to Ibsen’s, who died 1906, with Gespenster (1905) and Hedda Gabler (1912) Come back of French and British plays: Moliere, Wilde, and Shaw