Professor Bernhardi

2016 2h 52mMovie

Thomas Ostermeier’s productions of classic plays which visit Britain from the Schaubühne in Berlin, of which he is artistic director, usually display at least one crucial element of flagrant reconceptualisation. In this case, however, what distinguishes his new version (edited with Florian Borchmeyer) of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1912 drama is its resolutely low-key approach. It is Hartmann’s composure that personifies the tone of the production. The set is simply a white box on which locations and descriptions are written for each act (“photographs on the walls” is, yes, written on the wall), and the affair is played as an administrative rather than a political or moral issue.