With his production of Goethe’s Faust Part 1 at the Deutsche Theater in Berlin, Michael Thalheimer once more succeeds in doing so. Against a minimalist backdrop, he shows Faust to be a self-centered egomaniac. “The discourse illuminating each corner of human existence, Goethe’s terrific crash course about life’s possibilities and impossibilities, his poetic and pointed discussion of the meaning of life, unique in world literature—staged as a magnificent one-man show. No brooding, no hysteria. Rather sober, but shot through with passion,” judges the daily Die Welt.

The cast consists of Ingo Hülsmann (Faust), Sven Lehmann (Mephisto), Regine Zimmermann (Gretchen), Peter Pagel (Wagner), Horst Lebinski (student), Henning Vogt (Gretchen’s brother), and Isabel Schosni (Marthe Schwerdtlein).

Michael Thalheimer, born in 1965 in Frankfurt/Main, studied drama in Bern and worked for many years as an actor. His breakthrough as director came with Franz Molnár’s “Liliom” at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg (2000). His production of Lessing’s “Emilia Galotti” at the Deutsche Theater (2002) was awarded the Friedrich Luft Prize and the Viennese Nestroy Prize.