Otto Devrient

* 03.10.1838 in Berlin; ✝ 23.06.1894 in Szczecin

Actor, Artistic Director, Playwright

Biography

Trained as an actor by his father Eduard, Otto Devrient debuted as early as 1856 at the Court Theatre in Karlsruhe. Thereafter, he acted in various places, among them Stuttgart, Berlin, Leipzig and Weimar, where he began to work as a director. Particularly well-known was his production of Goethe’s Faust in its entirety, which he later took to Berlin and on tour. Devrient assumed, on various occasions, the role of artistic director at venues such as the City Theatre in Frankfurt am Main (1877-78), at the Court Theatre in Oldenburg (1884-1889) and at the Royal Theatre in Berlin (1889-1890).

Devrient achieved a certain reputation as author of folk-plays, such as his Luther play (1883) and Gustav Adolf (1891). He also published some minor works on theatrical history and, in collaboration with his father Eduard, an edition of Shakespeare plays in five volumes with the programmatic title Deutscher Bühnen- und Familien-Shakespeare (1873-1875).

Shakespeare Roles

• Hamlet (Hamlet)
• Richard (Richard III)
• Anthony (Julius Caesar)
• Edmund (King Lear)
• Shylock (The Merchant of Venice)
• Richard II (Richard II)
• Prince Henry (Henry IV)

Treatises and Editions

• Zwei Shakespeare-Vorträge. Karlsruhe, 1869.
• Deutscher Bühnen- und Familien-Shakespeare. Leipzig, 1873-1875

Literature

Primary Literature

• Tiberius Gracchus. Geschichtliches Trauerspiel in 5 Aufzügen. Karlsruhe, 1871.
• Goethe‘s Faust für die Aufführung als Mysterium in zwei Tagewerken eingerichtet von Otto Devrient. Karlsruhe, 1877.

Secondary Literature

• Kilian, E.: Otto Devrient. In: Badische Biographien. Part v. Heidelberg 1906. Pp. 106–112.
• Lier, Hermann Arthur: „Devrient, Otto“. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 47 (1903). Pp. 670-671 [Online Version]. Url: www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd116089083.html.

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