Regietheater

Regietheater (German: [ʁeˈʒiːteˌaːtɐ] ; German for director's theater) is the modern practice of allowing a director freedom in devising the way a given opera or play is staged so that the creator's original, specific intentions or stage directions (where supplied) can be changed, together with major elements of geographical location, chronological situation, casting and plot. Typically such changes may be made to point a particular political point or modern parallels which may be remote from traditional interpretations. Examples found in Regietheater productions may include some or all of the following: Relocating the story from the original location to a more modern period (including setting in a totalitarian regime) Modifications to the story from the original script Interpretative elements stressing the role of race/gender/class-based oppression are emphasised. In his 1976 staging of the Ring Cycle at the Bayreuth Festival, Patrice Chéreau used an updated 19th-century setting that followed the interpretation of George Bernard Shaw, who saw the Ring as a social commentary on the exploitation of the working class by wealthy 19th-century capitalists.