The Wallenstein Trilogy

Peter Stein has a taste for theatrical marathons: in 2000, he staged a 21-hour production of Goethe’s “Faust”. Now, working with the Berliner Ensemble (a company founded by Bertolt Brecht), the German director is offering a trilogy of dramas by Friedrich Schiller, Goethe’s contemporary. The three plays (“Wallenstein’s Camp”, “The Piccolomini” and “Wallenstein’s Death”) stretch over ten hours at the Kindl-Halle, a former brewery.

The action stems from the betrayal and murder of Albrecht von Wallenstein, a Bohemian general, during the Thirty Years War. Mr Stein is clearly mindful of the ways these themes of war and confusion resonate today. Those with the stamina to last through this epic (there are four intervals) will be richly rewarded.

Kindl-Halle, Werbellinstrasse 50, 12053 Berlin-Neukölln. U-Bahn: Boddinstrasse. Tel: +49 (0)30 2840 8155. See the Berliner Ensemble’s website.