Davos is located quite high up, almost 1600 meters above sea level. “Horribly high,” it says at the beginning of Thomas Mann’s novel “The Magic Mountain.” Those who treated themselves in the sanatorium there at the beginning of the 20th century, well, were quite removed from the world, especially in the case of Thomas Mann. When his 1,000-page work comes to the stage, it is a logical idea to also remove the play from the audience, to locate it well back in the abyss of the stage. Claudia Bossard did that in the Munich Volkstheater. And somehow it’s funny when, at the very end of the almost four-hour evening, you realize, figuratively speaking, that this “magic mountain” doesn’t really come close to you.
Thomas Mann’s “Zauberberg” at the Munich Volkstheater – Munich
