ABSTRACT
It was not only Max Herrmann who claimed that theatre is brought forth as a ‘festive event’. At the turn of the century, the idea of theatre as a festival was widespread among theatre reformers. In 1899, the playwright and theatre theoretician Georg Fuchs – a disciple of Nietzsche – elaborated it in an article which hailed theatre as a celebration of life. He repeated and rephrased the same idea later in two very influential books on the revolution of theatre that appeared in 1905 and 1909 and were translated into various European languages. In 1900, a book appeared on the subject written by the architect and designer Peter Behrens.1 And two years later, in a conversation with friends and colleagues which took place at the famous Café Monopol in Berlin at a late hour, Max Reinhardt explained his plans regarding the function of classical plays in his theatre of the future by referring to this very idea.
