Berlin Theatertreffen 2024: Theatertreffen: Dachshund poop attack soon in Berlin

This festival is a wonderfully outdated institution. Almost no newspaper still affords traveling critics, and the culture pages are among the first to be eliminated when there is no money. Despite this, criticism continues to play the main role at the theater meeting, which takes place every May. Every year, the Berlin Festival pays a group of journalists to watch as many productions as they like. In order to then put together a list of ten works at the beginning of the year that will perform in Berlin in May. These invitations are hard currency for the company. They bring fame, increase salaries, and promote careers. In the obituaries of theater makers, references to the theater meetings at which they were present are never missing.

In the case of the director, artistic director and translator Frank-Patrick Steckel, there were five editions. Steckel died on Thursday at the age of 80. A day later, his daughter, the director Jette Steckel, received the first invitation of her career. In their production of Anton Chekhov’s first play “The Fatherless”, which was released at the Munich Kammerspiele, the action is interrupted by a talk format called “Dad Men Talking”, in which the long-time Volksbühne dramaturge Carl Hegemann chats with a variety of surprise guests. At the performances in Berlin, people naturally want Frank Castorf on stage.

The only work in a small house should also provide a need for conversation. The Wunderbaum group has created a piece in Jena based on one of the biggest scandals in a long time: Last year, choreographer Marco Goecke smeared the remains of his dachshund in the face of a critic from the »FAZ«. Just like this work, people will certainly talk about the spectacle “Giant in Middle-earth”. Director Nicolas Stemann and the ensembles of the Schauspielhaus Zürich and the Theater Hora will populate the stage with orcs, hobbits and elves based on JRR Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” saga.

For Stemann, who is not entirely leaving his position as Zurich co-director in the summer, his seventh invitation should come with a certain satisfaction. Other directors are also there again. Johan Simons, artistic director in Bochum, brings a “Hamlet” with him and gives the Berlin audience the rare opportunity to see the Iffland ring bearer Jens Harzer play. Meanwhile, Karin Beier from the Schauspielhaus Hamburg sends Lina Beckmann onto the stage, who will perform the solo “Laios”, written by Roland Schimmelpfennig.

Ulrich Rasche is also back with Lessing’s “Nathan the Wise” (Salzburg Festival). In Rasche’s dark, strictly choreographed works, the ensembles march incessantly toward a distant goal, but because there are turntables or escalators beneath their boots, they make no progress. It will be interesting to see how this aesthetic, applied to this material of all things, will be received by the strict Berlin audience after Hamas’ attack on the Israeli population on October 7th last year.

This also applies to the Ruhrtriennale production “Extra Life,” with which the Theatertreffen is once again opening up to contemporary dance. Florentina Holzinger last filled this position, and now the jury is inviting the French-Austrian choreographer and artist Gisèle Vienne for the first time. Another big winner of the year is the director Rieke Süßkow, born in 1990, who is on the list for the second time in a row with her visually striking Nuremberg production of Werner Schwab’s “Overweight, Unimportant: Unform.”

The only house represented with two works is the Berlin Schaubühne, which will please its director Thomas Ostermeier just as much as it will hurt Shermin Langhoff, the director of the Maxim Gorki Theater. Because “Bucket List” is the playwright Yael Ronen’s first work on Kurfürstendamm after she worked at Gorki for many years. And Falk Richter, director of the award-winning production “The Silence,” used to work there, as did his solo lead actor Dimitrij Schaad. Both productions are probably closest to the current discourse. Ronen’s musical was seen as an artistic response to the war in the Middle East, while Richter’s piece deals with trauma and conflicts between generations.

Aesthetically, the list is, as in recent years, rather heterogeneous. The choice of Steckel’s “The Fatherless”, Simon’s “Hamlet” and Beier’s “Laius” can be understood as a plea for the art of acting. Süßkow, Rasche and Vienne, on the other hand, stand for formally sophisticated stage art. The jury’s tableau therefore represents the range of what and how is currently being played; it is a compressed representation of the status quo. And it’s not that bad. Even if you miss one or two works – such as Sebastian Hartmann’s Dresden Houellebecq adaptation or Marina Davydova’s “Museum of Uncounted Voices” – this is still a program that makes you want to come to May.