Offending the playwright: directors’ theatre and the 'Werktreue' debate

This chapter investigates the relationship between text and performance through the lens of ‘Werktreue’, which broadly translates as ‘faithfulness to the play’. ‘Werktreue’ emerges as an intellectually contradictory term which has little basis in the practical business of theatrical production. Theresia Walser and Rolf Hochhuth are used as case studies to examine what offended playwrights might tell us about ‘Werktreue’ in the real world of the theatre before ethical and legal questions are addressed. The chapter concludes that there is no solution to the aporias at the centre of the realisation process and that playwrights may simply have to accept this condition.