Peymann, Claus

(1937- )

   Director. Peymann began his directing career at the experimental Theater am Turm in Frankfurt am Main, where he developed his accustomed taste for provocation and controversy. Like many of his contemporaries who had witnessed the passing of notable directors from the 1920s and 1930s, Peymann embraced controversy for the sake of notoriety, a pattern he has continued throughout his career. His first brush with a public squabble over his work at the national level came in 1971 with the world premiere of Peter Handke's Der Ritt über den Bodensee (The Ride across Lake Constance) at the Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer in Berlin. That production led to a falling out with the theater's leading director and Peymann's colleague Peter Stein, so Peymann departed for work as a freelance director in Stuttgart, the Salzburg Festival, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, and the Burgtheater in Vienna.

   Peymann became intendant of the Württembergiches Staatstheater in Stuttgart from 1974 to 1979, then director of the Bochum Schauspielhaus, a position he held until 1986 when he took over the Burgtheater. He remained in Vienna until 1999, when he assumed leadership of the Berliner Ensemble at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. In all of these venues, Peymann's productions won praise from colleagues throughout the German theater world, and the result has been a substantial number of invitations to the Berliner Theatertreffen. Peymann's 20 invitations exceed those of any other director except Peter Zadek since the Theatertreffen's inception in 1963-1964. Few other directors can match Peymann's longevity, his administrative gifts, his artistic vision, his ability to work with contemporary playwrights, and his unprecedented skill at manipulating the media.

   Peymann has directed a number of world premieres, among them Thomas Bernhard 's Minetti, Immanuel Kant, Vor dem Ruhestand (Eve of Retirement), and Heldenplatz (Heroes' Square); Gerlind Reinshagen's Himmel und Erde (Heaven and Earth); and Franz Xaver Kroetz's Das Ende der Paarung (The Breakup). The Bernhard productions at the Burg stirred the greatest controversy, due in part to Bernhard's extremely unflattering remarks about Austrians, usually timed to coincide with premieres of his plays. While in Bochum, Pey-mann had nine productions selected for the Theatertreffen, among them Friedrich Schiller's Die Räuber (The Robbers), Heinrich von Kleist's Kätchen von Heilbronn (Kathy of Heilbronn), and Johann Wolfgang Goethe's Faust, Part 1 and Part 2.

   In Stuttgart, however, Peymann attracted attention less for artistic reasons than for political activities; a good example is his campaign in the mid-1970s to provide dental care for members of the BaaderMeinhof gang. Such campaigns usually endeared him to some, but alienated him from elected officials who provide the enormous subsidies he requires for the theaters he operates. Peymann has faced down attempts to cut subsidies for theaters where he has worked, usually by threatening to resign amid accusations of bureaucratic in-sensitivity, thereby gaining favor from the media. The result has typically been a contract extension with no decrease in public funding. Since his arrival at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin, he has threatened to resign nearly every year if funding for his theater were to be reduced. He is the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, and most critics consider him one of the most gifted directors working in contemporary German-language theater.