Marvin Carlson dedicates his latest book to what is known in Germany as Regietheater: the artistic dominance of directors who shape performances conceptually from a decidedly political perspective. A group of directors who have shaped German theatre since the late 1960s, headed by Peter Stein, followed the example of politically conscious directing set by Brecht and Piscator. Thus the title, taken from a poster of Claus Peymann's contentious 1982 production of a Nazi favourite, Kleist's Die Herrmannschlacht, refers to the ‘powerful refutation of the careful removal from politics of art in general and theatre in particular that had been so prevalent in the Adenauer era’ (p. xii). Carlson captures the ‘generational rhythm’ (p. 195) underlying the evolution of directorial forms for interlacing art and politics by distinguishing three historiographic layers in German directing: the ‘old masters’ Peter Stein, Peter Zadek and Peymann, who emerged in the late 1960s in the wake of the student uprising and established themselves at major state theatres in the 1970s and 1980s; the ‘successors’ Andrea Breth, Frank Castorf and Christoph Marthaler, who made their mark primarily starting in the 1990s; and finally ‘the next generation’, identified as Thomas Ostermeier, Michael Thalheimer and Stefan Pucher, who have garnered much attention in the early twenty-first century.

Each chapter launches into a chronological sequence and sketches each production in brief, effective language devoid of theorizing but interlaced with historiographical commentary. This approach serves the ‘the old masters’ much better than it does the more recent directors because the sometimes long list of shows discussed is rendered with historical commentary, complexity and cross-references which, naturally, is less rich for the younger generation. Furthermore, Carlson offers hints of a complex historiography for the end of the twentieth century since Stein, Peymann and Zadek were still active, creating a fascinating, and often competitive, contrast with successive generations of directors.

The book is a good introduction for English-speaking readers who have so far lacked an extensive production history. Carlson's organization sometimes obscures historiographical issues. For example, while he thematizes the deep rifts between East and West German culture, his structure prevents an analysis of the constellations of art and politics after 1989. The chapters on Stein, Zadek and Peymann remain the most compelling since they were, notwithstanding their unique styles, united in opposition to the postwar era of West Germany's economic miracle and the silence about Nazi war crimes. In contrast, the chapters on the successors appear more disjointed. Similarly, the continuing East–West cross-currents disappear in the grouping of, for example, Ostermeier with Thalheimer. In the end, Carlson offers a surprising lament of the state of new plays in this kind of director's theatre, and he affords a brief glance at Rimini Protokoll as future model for German theatre.