6 - “Erweitert jetzt ist des Theaters Enge”: Action, Space, and Gesture in the Wallenstein Trilogy

Summary

THE PREMIERE OF Wallensteins Lager (Wallenstein's Camp) took place on 12 October 1798 to celebrate the opening of the newly renovated theater in Weimar. Goethe as director had been indefatigable in rehearsal and reported to Schiller at every stage. Schiller required changes up to the last moment. He came to Weimar to assist with the rehearsals for Die Piccolomini (The Piccolomini), which was premiered the following January, while the third part of the trilogy, Wallensteins Tod (Wallenstein's Death), was premiered with success in March. Other productions soon followed in Berlin, Leipzig, and Hamburg. Goethe was keen to use the resources of the new theater, particularly the impression of depth that had been created by the narrowing of the auditorium. The prologue to Schiller's trilogy refers to the new theater's architecture, and to the actor's and the poet's art, before giving a glimpse of the devastation of the Thirty Years' War, alluding to the character and reputation of Wallenstein, and culminating in the famous reference to the interplay of the play's subject with its representation in art: “Ernst ist das Leben, heiter ist die Kunst” (Life is in earnest, art is cheerful). In a poem Schiller wrote in 1800, “An Goethe, als er den Mahomet von Voltaire auf die Bühne brachte” (To Goethe, when he staged Voltaire's Mahomet), we find the words:

Erweitert jetzt ist des Theaters Enge,

In seinem Raume drängt sich eine Welt

[The theater's narrow space has been enlarged. A whole world crowds into its four walls.]