Afterlife

During the first four decades of the 20th-century, Max Reinhardt was a theatre impressario second to none. He directed and produced productions so extravagent—literally casts of thousands—that only the filmmaker Cecile B. de Mille warrants comparison. Reinhardt was also one of the principals who reopened the Salzburg Festival in 1920, after a hiatus of ten years, by directing Hugo von Hofmannsthal's play Jedermann (an adaptation of the medieval passion play, Everyman) on the steps of the Cathedral Square, where the practice continues to this day.

(L to R) David Burke as Prince Archbishop, Roger Allum as Max Reinhardt, Peter Forbes as Rudolf 'Katie' Kommer, Abigail Cruttenden as Helene Thimig Photo: Conrad Blakmore

Renowned playwright Michael Frayn (Noises Off, Copenhagen, et al.) encapsulates Reinhardt's larger-than-life existence by mapping its arc to Everyman, thereby lending a biographically appropriate classical framework and religious overtones to Reinhardt's story. The results are stunning, much in the way Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not for Burning brought Elizabethan sensibilities to the late 20th-Century, Frayn brings Greek proportions to the present.

Roger Allum as Max Reinhardt Photo: Conrad Blakmore

Director Michael Blakemore's use of the National's expansive Lyttelton Theatre does Reinhardt proud, filled with Peter Davison's prodigious, cooly elegant, sets, including the Cathedral steps and the great hall of the Schloss Leopoldskron, a rococo palace and a national historic monument that Reinhardt refurbished over a period of 20 years.

Roger Allam wears Reinhardt's dashing theatricality and sense of mischief with aplomb, at times seeming to direct and act in his own play. Whether it be Death at his door, as in Everyman, or the Nazis chasing him out of Austria, as in real life, Allum's Reinhardt exudes a marvelous sense of the world as a stage, with he being the sun (star) at the center.

Roger Allam as Max Reinhardt and Abigail Cruttenden as Helene Thimig Photo: Conrad Blakmore

Revolving around Reinhardt are a variety of compelling characters: Abigail Cruttenden is luminous as Helene Thimig, his lover and, later, his second wife; Selina Griffiths instills Gusti Adler, Reinhardt's loyal housekeeper, with a heart of gold; Peter Forbes is winsome as Rudolf "Katie" Kommer, Reinhardt's long-suffering business manager; Glyn Grain mines the dry humor of the inherited royal valet, Franz; David Burke brings thoughtful spirituality to the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg; David Schofield, as Friedrich Müller, deftly applies an ominous sense of dread that foreshadows his dark future; and Nicholas Lumley provides the perfect measure of transparency as Everyman.

David Schofield as Friedrich Muller/Death and Roger Allum as Max Reinhardt Photo: Conrad Blakmore

The parallels between Reinhardt's story and that of Everyman are natural and unforced, for Max lived large and died poor, just as Everyman teaches: you can't take it with you; when it's time to go, your possessions mean nothing; only your soul is in the balance—as Frayn so eloquently sums up (through Max) in the epilogue.

The National Theatre's production of Michael Frayn's Afterlife runs through August 30th. 011-44-020-7452-3000.

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