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Memorialising Mephisto

Mephisto tells the astonishing true story of the progress of the most sexually and politically radical cabaret troupe of 1930s Germany, The Peppermill. The club was set up in 1929 by siblings Erika and Klaus Mann (children of the internationally famous playwright Thomas Mann). Erika established the club with the aim, which now seems charmingly naïve, of promoting communism through theatre. Klaus was a homosexual writer, slightly lost after a short-lived engagement to a childhood friend, and happy enough to write the sketches for his sister’s quirky theatre troupe. 
At the start of the 30s the club flourished with a string of risqué productions: they mocked Hitler’s traditional values and flaunted their social (and sexual) deviance. Their sketches depicted lesbian foreplay, they employed black dancers and their lead actor was a Jew. Mephisto tracks the real-life rise and eventual fall of the club, as members of the company were forced to flee from Germany or face arrest.
When Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933, many of the left-wing actors and directors were forced out of Germany. This left a wealth of new positions suddenly available for those whose racial and political backgrounds passed Nazi inspection. The dilemma faced by Hendrik, the main character in Mephisto, was one that affected every actor who remained in Germany: whether to accept the job offers flooding in from theatres in Berlin and Munich (generally under Nazi control), or whether to reject them and let other, less scrupulous actors become the stars. Their decisions were usually pragmatic rather than principled. 
Of those who left Germany, most of The Peppermill club — including Klaus and Erika Mann – reformed in Switzerland where they continued their anti-Hitler performances. They quickly built up a huge fan base and spent several years touring Europe before the rioting  of Swiss Nazis in Zurich meant they had to move on. Next they tried America but the Yankee appetite for European political satire was limited, and their run ended after just a few weeks. 
Most of the troupe wandered back to Europe or lived out the rest of their lives in the States. Erika Mann started a relationship with one of the cabaret’s leading actresses (and then had affairs with several others). She became a journalist and at the end of the war she and Klaus were forced to leave America due to FBI investigations into their homosexual and communist activities. She moved back to Germany, eventually becoming one of the few female writers to cover the Nuremburg Trials. 
Klaus coped less well and  found life in post-war Berlin unbearable. When his novel, Mephisto, was rejected for publication in Germany he committed suicide. And what of the character of Hendrik, who had stayed in Germany to progress his career? He was invited to join the Berlin State Theatre (now under Hitler’s thumb) and in a brilliant ‘meta’ twist made his name starring in a production of Faust as the man who sells his soul to the devil. 
Many from The Peppermill tried to recreate their old lives after the war. But the intensity of life as seen in Mephisto – the sex and the music and the politics – must have been uniquely thrilling and they never regained that sexual liberty.  In a sense they were the first hippies of the twentieth century. With their liberal attitude to sex and drugs and incestuous relationships, they took ‘free love’ to a new level.
‘Mephisto’ adapted by Ariane Mnouchkine is showing at the Playhouse from 22nd-25th February

Mephisto tells the astonishing true story of the progress of the most sexually and politically radical cabaret troupe of 1930s Germany, The Peppermill. The club was set up in 1929 by siblings Erika and Klaus Mann (children of the internationally famous playwright Thomas Mann). Erika established the club with the aim, which now seems charmingly naïve, of promoting communism through theatre. Klaus was a homosexual writer, slightly lost after a short-lived engagement to a childhood friend, and happy enough to write the sketches for his sister’s quirky theatre troupe. 

At the start of the 30s the club flourished with a string of risqué productions: they mocked Hitler’s traditional values and flaunted their social (and sexual) deviance. Their sketches depicted lesbian foreplay, they employed black dancers and their lead actor was a Jew. Mephisto tracks the real-life rise and eventual fall of the club, as members of the company were forced to flee from Germany or face arrest

When Hitler was appointed Chancellor in 1933, many of the left-wing actors and directors were forced out of Germany. This left a wealth of new positions suddenly available for those whose racial and political backgrounds passed Nazi inspection. The dilemma faced by Hendrik, the main character in Mephisto, was one that affected every actor who remained in Germany: whether to accept the job offers flooding in from theatres in Berlin and Munich (generally under Nazi control), or whether to reject them and let other, less scrupulous actors become the stars. Their decisions were usually pragmatic rather than principled. 

Of those who left Germany, most of The Peppermill club — including Klaus and Erika Mann – reformed in Switzerland where they continued their anti-Hitler performances. They quickly built up a huge fan base and spent several years touring Europe before the rioting  of Swiss Nazis in Zurich meant they had to move on. Next they tried America but the Yankee appetite for European political satire was limited, and their run ended after just a few weeks. 

Most of the troupe wandered back to Europe or lived out the rest of their lives in the States. Erika Mann started a relationship with one of the cabaret’s leading actresses (and then had affairs with several others). She became a journalist and at the end of the war she and Klaus were forced to leave America due to FBI investigations into their homosexual and communist activities. She moved back to Germany, eventually becoming one of the few female writers to cover the Nuremburg Trials.

Klaus coped less well and  found life in post-war Berlin unbearable. When his novel, Mephisto, was rejected for publication in Germany he committed suicide. And what of the character of Hendrik, who had stayed in Germany to progress his career? He was invited to join the Berlin State Theatre (now under Hitler’s thumb) and in a brilliant ‘meta’ twist made his name starring in a production of Faust as the man who sells his soul to the devil. 

Many from The Peppermill tried to recreate their old lives after the war. But the intensity of life as seen in Mephisto – the sex and the music and the politics – must have been uniquely thrilling and they never regained that sexual liberty.  In a sense they were the first hippies of the twentieth century. With their liberal attitude to sex and drugs and incestuous relationships, they took ‘free love’ to a new level.

‘Mephisto’ adapted by Ariane Mnouchkine is showing at the Playhouse from 22nd-25th February

 

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