Theatertreffen, May 1 – 17
The previous season's ten most notable theater productions performed in Germany, Austria and Switzerland get an encore showing every year in Berlin during the festival “Theatertreffen” (The Meeting of Theaters). Free of such conditions as showing the latest trends in theater or adhering to a certain theme, this festival offers a truly diverse program in terms of aesthetics and content. A panel of seven theater critics hulls their ten favorites from, as was this year, 379 theater productions shown in 54 German-speaking cities.
Sometimes the festival shows works by directors who are just starting out and, although they're still unknown by the greater public, show great promise. This year among the up-and-comers is the young Swiss director and musician Thom Luz – ask anyone in Switzerland about what's new and interesting, and they'll unanimously point to Luz. Theatertreffen will be presenting Luz's Hanover production of “Atlas der abgelegenen Insel”.
Oftentimes Theatertreffen shows the works of directors who have participated in the festival for several decades, as it is this year with classic master of deconstructionist theater, Frank Castorf – a creator and developer of original theater in the 80s and 90s. His productions are like balls of energy in which screaming, out-of-their-minds entities circulate, their ecstatic conversations sinking into the bottomless pit of societal destruction. And then there are times when the productions start becoming tiresome and seem to be stuck in yesteryear. Castorf's and the Munich Residenztheater's version of one of Bertolt Brecht's earlier works, “Baal”, has this time come to the German capital with a scandal in tow: Brecht's heirs sued the theater company for not staying true to Brecht's script, and they prevailed. The production has been allowed to be shown one more time, at Theatertreffen; after that it will be shown without Brecht's words. Those who have seen Castorf's five-hour-long version say that half an hour would have been quite sufficient.
Although the festival's program is made up of extremely diverse works, this year the organizers have indeed decided to focus on something in particular – the German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Weary of work, life and drugs, Fassbinder died from an overdose more than thirty years ago. He was an artist who, unlike any other, had the ability to look deep inside both the tangled and unknown world of human beings and the soul-deforming strangle-hold of bourgeois society. Mercilessly, he went far beyond the line of accepted norms of how to depict people and society. An expansive exhibition featuring the works of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a large part of which were theatrical productions made in the early days of his career, will be held in the Martin Gropius Bau.
In addition, one of the theatrical productions featured in the festival, “Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?”, is based upon Fassbinder's film of the same name. It will be put on by Munich's Kammerspiele company, under the direction of the young director Susanne Kennedy. With its original way of distancing and recombining the actors' bodies and voices into a different level of perception, this will be the second time in a row that the company is performing at Theatertreffen.
Theatertreffen will also be the perfect opportunity to see the Maxim Gorki Theater company perform – last season they received the title of Best Theater of the Year, as chosen by a jury of 36 theater critics for the magazine Theater heute. Having been reformatted the previous season (as oft happens in the world of German theater), the Maxim Gorki Theater is now a forum for directors and actors of various nationalities. Its themes and communicative demeanor are unlike those of other German theaters, and it has succeeded in becoming something much more than just a social project. Thanks to the Maxim Gorki Theater, the medium of theater has regained its importance in Berlin by encouraging intensive discussions that make the public think – and not expect that the answers will be simply handed to them. Theatertreffen will feature Israeli director Yael Roman's production of “Common Ground”, which she developed together with actors whose parents are refugees from the Yugoslavian Wars. Although the children grew up in a different part of Europe that wasn't at war, their roots and familial histories have left deep and multi-layered issues that they must still deal with. www.berlinerfestspiele.de
Image: Warum läuft Herr R. Amok?. Kristen Elsen, Herbert Volz, Renate Lewin, Ingmar Thilo, Sibylle Sailer. © JU Ostkreuz
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