Herman Bang about Directing

Abstract

The essay is focused on the illuminating writings of the Danish writer and director Herman Bang regarding the modern directing; his contribution to the success of Scandinavian authors in France and his personal interactions with the Meininger, Streben, Lugné-Poe, Réjane, Reinhardt, Stanislavskij. The essay demonstrates how the problem of direction arose in the 19th-century particularly in professional theatre and reinterprets phenomena such as the Meininger and the relationship between avant-garde and professional acting companies in Paris in a new light; finally, through Herman Bang’s account, it illustrates little-known aspects of 19th-century Russian theatre.