In May 2006, the distinguished German theatre director Peter Zadek celebrates his 80th birthday. His productions are still a challenge for audiences and milestones in contemporary culture even today.
Peter Zadek laid the foundations for his current fame in the seventies, during his legendary period as director of the Bochum Schauspielhaus. In 1972, the delightful Kleiner Mann was nun (based on Hans Fallada) marked the start of a series of magical theatrical events, notably his magnificent productions of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and Hamlet.
Peter Zadek follows on from his first book of memoirs My Way. Again, it is a delight to read and again it is an untidy book, lively because of its direct, colloquial form of narration, full of wit, sarcasm, tenderness and surprises: the volatile cooperation with R.W. Faßbinder, the young actor Herbert Grönemeyer, his turbulent private life, work as a film director. We gain an impression of an era in which German theatre possessed an incredible vitality, and we accompany Zadek into his workshop where his inimitable fantasy was given free reign and where with his wonderful colleagues such memorable productions were created.
