Since an account of every known staging would require several volumes, Kleist on Stage is limited to major productions in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland that attracted more than the usual press coverage, and to interpretations and adaptations outside the German-speaking countries. Reeve presents a chronological stage history of each of the plays, beginning with Die Familie Schroffenstein and ending with Prinz Friedrich von Homburg. He also discusses some of the problems faced by a director attempting to put a Kleistian drama on stage, and pleads for greater understanding and cooperation between the academic and theatrical traditions.

William C. Reeve is Professor Emeritus of German at Queen's University., is the author of Peter M. Pringle: Master Decoy Maker (McGill-Queen's University Press) and co-author of Nichol Decoys: The Smith Falls School of Carving (Quarry Heritage Books). He is also well known as a collector of fine furniture of the 19th century and a frequent contributor to The Upper Canadian Antique Showcase.

William C. Reeve's profile page

"Reeve manages to give the reader not only a good impression of the reception Kleist's plays have been given by critics and audiences alike, but he also enables the reader to appreciate the 'seemingly inexhaustible potential and continuing relevance of Kleist's plays,' whose interpretations on stage reflect, moreover, the shift in the intellectual and cultural currents since the early nineteenth century." Alfred Ratz, Department of Modern Languages, University of Saskatchewan. "There is no other reference work of this type currently available. The information assembled by the author is essential to many types of historical and critical studies of Kleist's drama, and the subject matter is of interest to anyone (from students to scholars to theatre people) who is curious about the immense range of possible interpretive approaches to Kleist's enigmatic dramas." Linda Dietrick, Department of Germanic Studies, University of Winnipeg.