Jette Steckel’s not-so-subtle staging of Kleist’s “Homburg” culture

The fact that Jette Steckel chose Heinrich von Kleist’s battle painting “Prince Friedrich von Homburg” for her first production at the Berlin Schaubühne is a risky decision. At the Schaubühne, Peter Stein’s production of the Prussian war drama as a somnambulistic dream piece made theater history almost exactly half a century ago. Stein, his dramaturge Botho Strauss and Bruno Ganz as Homburg came up with a fascinating new interpretation of the play from the spirit of surrealism, romanticism and dream interpretation. The poet and his title character merged; we watched Kleist imagine himself as an unhappy, fame-seeking war hero: “Kleist’s dream of Prince Homburg.”