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"Facebook saw some drama last week. Okay, maybe that\u2019s not news \u2014 but this was no relationship status update or compromising photo album. In what\u2019s been called the social-networking giant\u2019s first live performance, Berlin\u2019s Maxim Gorki Theater used the site to premiere their adaptation of Theodor Fontane\u2019s 1894 novel \u201CEffi Briest,\u201D long considered one of the most important German realist novels of all time.Directed by Jorinde Dr\u00F6se, the play chronicles a 17-year-old girl\u2019s journey through marriage and a subsequent affair with a major in the military during the Franco-Prussian war. In time-honored tragic form the whole thing devolves into mother-in-law lust, child-rejection, and a dueling shootout, with a fatal spell of hysteria to boot.Created by Jung von Matt/Spree, the brains behind the first interactive horror film, \u201CLast Call,\u201D the Facebook event, dubbed \u201CEffi Briest 2.0\u201D drew 1,200 new members to the theater\u2019s page before the play\u2019s start. This was no traditional staging, however. Maxim Gorki\u2019s Facebook adaptation saw each of the actors create a profile for their character in the play. With these, they posted back and forth on Effi Briest\u2019s page, used Facebook chat, likes, and soundcloud integration to perform a digital \u201Cstaging.\u201D For example, Effi Briest posted a status update, \u201CThe ghosts in my house are talking to me... they are telling me what to wear to class today,\u201D and changed her relationship status several times throughout the production.\u201CIt was a great opportunity for us to reach out to our Facebook friends in a different way, and we got many positive comments and lots of feedback,\u201D Rebecca Rasem, head of dramaturgy for the theater, told the Los Angeles Times, indicating that future Facebook productions were also a possibility. \u201CFacebook can\u2019t replace the stage, but it offers some really interesting opportunities to perform theatre online,\u201D she added.All in all it sounds like a lot of work for the viewer, requiring frequent refreshes and browsing from one character to the next to catch the actual plot being laid out. But on the plus side, there's no need to wait until the reviews are in to see whether people  like  it.&amp;nbsp;[content:advertisement-center]"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/756285/berlin-theater-raises-curtain-on-the-first-live-facebook-play>