Reigen Digitization Project

The project present was developed in cooperation between Binghamton University and the University of Freiburg (Germany), and was funded on the German side by the German Research Foundation. The main content of this project page is the digital version of Max Reinhardt’s promptbook of Arthur Schnitzler’s Reigen and its complete transcription. All sources relating to Reinhardt’s directorial work on the Reigen (letters, diary entries, newspaper reports, etc.) are compiled in a chronological documentation. Based on the promptbook and the documentation, the project group of the German Department at the University of Freiburg (Judith Becher, Dieter Martin, Susanne Neubrand, Elias Veit) have written explanatory essays on the historical context of the production, Reinhardt’s stage conception, his use of light and music, his editing of the text, and the lasting effects of this promptbook. These essays are available as PDFs in German below. Their content is summarized in the following abstracts.

Das vorliegende Projekt entstand in Kooperation zwischen den Universitäten Binghamton und Freiburg (Deutschland), von deutscher Seite wurde es gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Den zentralen Inhalt der Projektseite bilden das Digitalisat von Max Reinhardts Regiebuch zu Arthur Schnitzlers Reigen und seine vollständige Transkription. Alle Quellen, die sich auf Reinhardts Regiearbeit am Reigen beziehen (Briefe, Tagebucheinträge, Zeitungsberichte u. a.), sind in einer chronologisch angelegten Dokumentation zusammengestellt. Auf der Basis des Regiebuchs und der Dokumentation haben die Mitglieder der Projektgruppe am Deutschen Seminar der Universität Freiburg (Judith Becher, Dieter Martin, Susanne Neubrand, Elias Veit) erläuternde Essays zum entstehungsgeschichtlichen Kontext, zu Reinhardts Bühnenkonzeption, zu seinem Einsatz von Licht und Musik, zu seiner Bearbeitung des Textes und zur Nachwirkung des Regiebuchs verfasst. Diese Essays sind hier als deutschsprachige PDFs hinterlegt. Ihren Inhalt fassen die folgenden Abstracts zusammen.

View Reigen: zehn Dialoge - Full text with German transcription

Documentation / Dokumentation

This collection offers a contemporary documentation of Max Reinhardt’s directorial work on Arthur Schnitzler’s Reigen in chronological order. Materials such as diaries and letters from those involved, as well as trial records and newspaper articles from the 1920s have been reviewed and selected. In addition, the sources presented are provided with links to the digital copies cited. The collected documents include numerous previously unknown sources and considerably expand our understanding of the history of the origin and influence of Max Reinhardt’s promptbook. Consequently, this documentation provides the foundation for the essays written as part of the project.

Explanatory Essays

Context / Kontext

This essay explores the historical context of Max Reinhardt’s promptbook for Arthur Schnitzler’s Reigen. It begins with the creation of the ten dialogues at the end of the 19th century and traces its path into the 1920s. A large number of Schnitzler’s diary entries, telegrams, and letters between Schnitzler and Reinhardt, as well as between Schnitzler and publishing and theater professionals, artists, and friends are used to discuss the development of this world premiere. Reinhardt’s departure from his theater and Berlin, the performance at the Kleines Schauspielhaus in Berlin under director Hubert Reusch and the resulting outrage with a trial, newspaper articles from Maximilian Harden, and a ban are discussed. Finally, the essay follows the surprising journey of the promptbook via Reinhardt’s emigration to the US, the auction of his papers after his death, their purchase by Marylin Monroe, and their subsequent incorporation into the collection of the Max Reinhardt Archive at Binghamton University.

Stage / Bühne

Max Reinhardt’s promptbook contains numerous sketches from different perspectives, providing valuable insights into his stage design. He adopts the Viennese locations from Schnitzler’s Reigen with a few extra additions and decorates the stage with an emphasis on realism. This essay argues that, for both Schnitzler and Reinhardt, not only was the stage design crucial but the choice of theatre itself was essential for aesthetic, technical and reputational reasons. The Kammerspiele in Berlin was selected because its small stage and auditorium allowed to reduce the set to just sections of the exterior and interior scenery and therefore, establish an intimate atmosphere. Reinhardt’s intimate setting creates spaces for staging the sexual acts in a discreet way without the need for a curtain, allowing him to focus on theatrical techniques like visual and acoustic elements along with the use of offstage space during the scenes.

Music / Musik

This essay discusses the polyfunctional use of music and other acoustic means in Max Reinhardt’s promptbook of Arthur Schnitzler’s Reigen. The most striking usage of music occurs during the sexual act, which is marked in the play by a row of dashes. On one hand, the musical scenery, combined with darkness, drowns out the performed intercourse and on the other hand, it evokes the imagination of the audience. Sounds and musical phrases are used additionally to support the structure of the dialogs, making invisible characters and offstage events both audible and imaginable. It is argued that Reinhardt employs a popular tune as a musical leitmotif to connect the scenes, symbolizing the ubiquity of sexual desire across social classes and throughout the play. Together with his design of light and shadow on the stage, music is a key element of Reinhardt’s staging concept.

Light / Licht

This essay focusses on the use of light and shadow as an extremely flexible and rich system of theatrical symbols in Max Reinhardt’s promptbook for Arthur Schnitzler’s Reigen. Reinhardt employs various light sources on stage (e.g., lanterns, sunlight and electric light) to divide the stage into zones of light and darkness. These zones not only influence the characters’ behaviour but also symbolically create space for potential sexual actions within. He uses lighting not merely to make the events on stage visible, but to obscure them, enhancing the performative effect through this interplay of visibility and invisibility. Darkness becomes one of Reinhardt’s techniques for translating Schnitzler’s dashes, which surrogate the explicit sexual act. Combined with his use of music on the stage, the lighting design is a crucial element of Reinhardt’s staging concept.

Directing / Regiearbeit

In Max Reinhardt’s promptbook, a dense network of annotations, text changes, cuts and additions documents his directorial work. Precisely because the material remains fragmentary, it sheds light on his process of developing directorial notions in the promptbooks. Although he is restrained in making alterations and additions to the main text of Schnitzler’s Reigen, he makes clear cuts in favor of discretion, which defuse or remove explicit sexual content. Additionally, he extensively adds stage directions and emphasizes the style of speaking in nearly all of the characters’ speeches. It is argued that Reinhardt reduces, through his annotations, the intended ambiguities in Schnitzler’s play and reinforces a consensual interpretation of the sexual approaches. This supports his intimate and discrete staging concept in connection with his use of light, music and stage design.

Reception / Rezeption

In the end, Max Reinhardt never directed Reigen in the theatre. However, his promptbook was known to those in charge for the 1920 performance at the Kleines Schauspielhaus, which led to one of the most infamous theatre scandals of the Weimar Republic. This essay explores the reception of Reinhardt’s promptbook in this performance, focusing on the cast, stage design, music, and overall concept. Reinhardt’s staging concept is clearly visible in the first two scenes, particularly through his use of light and music. From the third scene onwards, however, the approach shifts, introducing stronger elements to obscure the audience’s view of explicit content, culminating in the use of a curtain during the sex scenes and a more suggestive performance of the play on the Stilbühne.