This stage production is based on the novel Mephisto by Klaus Mann. Mann wrote his novel in 1936 when he had fled to Holland from Germany due to the Nazis’ rise to power. The novel’s main character is Hendrik Höfgen, an excellent actor who likes to be at the centre of attention. He sings, dances, kids around, is charming and funny. He combines in his personality a great artist and an outstanding showman. Höfgen has just performed in his first major role (Mephistopheles in Goethe’s Faust) when the National Socialists come to power in Germany. Höfgen has to choose whether to continue his ascending career, even if in order to do so he has to cooperate with a political force that espouses views that he absolutely does not approve of; or stand up for his value judgements, which inevitably would also mean the end of his career. This is a very personal story for Klaus Mann because the character Höfgen is based on Mann’s brother-in-law Gustaf Gründgens, the greatest German actor of that era. The Hungarian director István Szabó made the film Mephisto in 1981 based on Mann’s novel and it won the Oscar for the Best International Feature Film in that same year.