Tales from Germany

I am a theatre buff and some of my earliest childhood memories are of being taken to the theatre in Johannesburg. One of the joys of living in Germany is its rich theatre tradition. Even a small city like Trier with its 100,000 inhabitants has a small tripartite theatre. However despite the money being spent on the physical structures, I believe that the vast majority of German actors are lousy. The biggest torture for anyone coming from the Anglo-Saxon world is to watch original English-language plays being performed in German, especially Shakespeare. As far as I am concerned most German actors just can’t do Shakespeare or any monologues. If they are angry they scream and if they are emotional or moved they whisper that you can’t hear a word of what they say in the third row from the front. I don’t know whether it is the language or their training but German actors just don’t know how to use the variety in their vocal cords. They obviously have never been trained in the subtle differe...