In the idyllic courtyard of the Landesmuseum Mainz, a few plane trees stand just far enough apart to accommodate a veritable wooden stage with many curtains in between, from the upper floor of which a wooden walkway winds around a tree. Ideal for quick ascents and descents and even better for love whispers under leafy green. For the second time, the Staatstheater is using this outdoor venue, and once again Mark Reisig hits the mark with his selection of plays: "Shakespeare in Love", based on the film script by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, is light summer entertainment at its finest.

In addition to Nora Lau's stage, the basis of the success is the costumes of Viktoria Schrott and Lina Maria Stein, which can hardly be surpassed in terms of imaginative craziness. The grotesquely extra-wide skirt of Queen Elisabeth (Katharina Uhland, who also plays the nurse and a boatswain) is still one of the most conventional ideas. In addition, there are meter-high hats, a cigarette-like full-body costume, brightly colored pants, jackets, glasses - and everything is teeming and swirling between modernity and Elizabethan age, a feast for the eyes.

Behind the scenes, the utmost discipline must prevail, because almost all performers play two or more roles, put on a hat, turn on a jacket and are thus almost all on stage without interruption. What the ensemble achieves here is remarkable, but you can also feel the pleasure this precisely touched nonsense gives everyone involved. And once again, the Mainz drama enchants with the most effective little ideas that come along without much technical fuss: flags as fireworks, blue cloths as water, a carousel as a pub.

Precisely touched nonsense

The romantic scenes that made the 1998 film a worldwide success are naturally neglected in Mark Reisig's production, which focuses on gaudy humor. Even as lovers, Will Shakespeare (Denis Larisch) and Viola de Lesseps (Lisa Eder) remain rather weird characters. Above all, the permanently clammy poet, who sells his unwritten plays several times and has a wife sitting at home in Stratford, is recognizably more interested in a muse than in a lasting love affair. Viola is therefore able to marry Count Wessex (Vincent Doddema), who is particularly interested in her dowry, with a light heart, giving up her love for the immortality of her future strokes of genius as if on an assembly line.

One circumstance, however, spoils the summer theater fun. While most open-air theatres have learned that it does not stay dry every evening in Central Europe, even in summer, the people of Mainz have not taken any precautions against wet, cold and wind. The original premiere date had to be postponed by a few days due to continuous rain, and the premiere was not without interruption either. The people of Mainz should not rely on the fact that the rain always stops after twenty minutes: Here, too, ingenuity is required.

Shakespeare in Love, Landesmuseum Mainz, next performances on 19, 20 and 22 May.