Theater: Berlin Theatertreffen: What was there to stare at?

It is actually undisputed: the Berlin Theatertreffen is the most important event for the art of acting in the German-speaking world. Once a year, ten productions deemed remarkable by an independent jury perform in the capital.

But then there is an argument. What blind spots were there this time? And why is that piece included? And don’t you see the same thing from the same stages year after year?

This year too there was plenty to discuss. There was widespread agreement at the sold-out performances that the performing arts in the House of the Berliner Festspiele (as well as the other venues), which have long been declared a sick grandmother, come across as quite lively.

It was a particularly strong production selection this year. It also proves that some exceptional actors are once again ruling the stage. Their names are Dimitrij Schaad and Joachim Meyerhoff, Valery Tscheplanowa and Almut Zilcher and, without a doubt, Lina Beckmann.

show wounds

The theater meeting seemed pretty dark, at least in its first week. The festival opened with a production of Lessing’s “Nathan the Wise” (Salzburg Festival, directed by Ulrich Rasche), a drama that is actually intended to bring light into the darkness.

But Rasche doesn’t spare the audience, juxtaposing the preaching of tolerance with texts from the great Enlightenment philosophers that reveal their anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, the evening at the theater remains only a product of the director’s formalistic working method: the continuous use of the revolving stage forces the actors to constantly march sideways; martial choirs dominate the scene; A lot of fog creates a non-stop carpet of sound. Despite some strong images, you soon feel like a victim of a scam.

“The Silence” (Schaubühne Berlin, directed by Falk Richter) takes a more cautious approach. The solo evening is an exploration by author-director Falk Richter of his growing up as a gay young man in the West German provinces, where the war still casts its shadow. Without exaggeration, everyday violence becomes very vivid here. The focus is not on the moment of shock, but rather on a closer look at the normal Federal Republican madness.

»Extra Life« (international co-production, director: Gisèle Vienne) was a surprise for quite a few audience members, as the theater meeting is dedicated to spoken theater. What we see here, however, is a language-poor hybrid of dance and performance. Two actors bring the story of sexual abuse to the stage with extreme sensitivity and work through it with their silence and endurance, with music and dance. Theater rarely has such an impact and lasting effect for days.

Art for the people

With “Giant in Middle-earth” (Schaupielhaus Zurich, directed by Nicolas Stemann/Stephan Stock/Florian Loycke/Der Cora Frost), the jury promised that both Tolkien experts and high culture nerds would get their money’s worth. The production was partly celebrated as a low-threshold theater offer. All you see here is how a large ensemble indulges in some nonsense with a lot of effort. In a compulsively ironic tone, the story of the fantasy classic “The Lord of the Rings” is retold to the audience in quick succession, including a low-level criticism of masculinism. You can’t shake the feeling that once again a theater meeting invitation has been used to make a cultural-political statement. In this case, towards the end of Nicolas Stemann’s directorship at the Schauspielhaus Zurich.

However, the fact that Stemann is already being talked about in several quarters in the press as a candidate for the head position at the Berlin Volksbühne seems like a bad joke. The self-absorbed game in which a lot of words are said loudly, but you don’t want to say anything seriously, is not the strategy for popular theater in the 21st century.

“Bucket List” (Schaubühne Berlin, directed by Yael Ronen) features the supposedly easily accessible form of the musical. The production was created under the impression of the Hamas terror on October 7, 2023. At an astonishingly high musical level, the ensemble witty and witty strategies for coping with trauma. It is an evening of theater that aims to make the artists’ own helplessness productive.

You’re much more likely to find antique material like the one the playwright Roland Schimmelpfennig has reworked. »Laios« (Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg, director: Karin Beier) is the name of a solo evening with the stunning Lina Beckmann, who throws the story about Oedipus’s father from ancient times into the present, tells it, plays it and shows it powerfully and with a false sense of purpose. One suspects that the folk theater of the ancient Greeks still has a lot to say to us – it just needs to be brought to the stage in the way that Beckmann can.

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Fight with the classics

An appropriation of a classic that has caused less cheer and more irritation is Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” (Schauspielhaus Bochum, director: Johan Simons). The tragedy is boldly assessed for its humorous potential. There is no slapstick to be seen, but there is still a vital concern with the madness of human rule. The fact that only three actors glide through the plot, constantly changing roles, only reinforces the impression: Anyone who is a traitor on the way to power today can be a betrayer tomorrow. We haven’t seen Shakespeare so brave and impressive on stage in a long time.

We see Chekhov’s debut drama “Platonov”, here under the alternative title “The Fatherless” (Münchner Kammerspiele, directed by Jette Steckel), in good shape. The somewhat frayed work was trimmed down and transformed into a compact, although still three and a half hour, cleverly staged evening in which the personnel from Russia of the century before last appear very present to us.

Where’s the joke?

With “Overweight, unimportant: Unform” (Nuremberg State Theater, directed by Rieke Süßkow), an attempt was made to reanimate a work by the linguistically playful and coarse author Werner Schwab. It’s not easy to see why this doesn’t work. The director lets her ensemble become puppets on stage and adapts a comic aesthetic for the theater (something like this can be seen from changing directors year after year at the Theatertreffen), but in addition to the impressive imagery, she does not find access to the humorous one Text.

However, you don’t have to wait for a clever joke when you see “The Dog Poop Attack” (Theaterhaus Jena, directed by Walter Bart). Starting from the confrontation with the real-life attack by a former Hanover ballet director on a dance critic, the viewer becomes a witness to a fictitious piece development. The players read out their email exchanges on the way to the production. The process is declared a work of art. A lot is said about art and criticism, violence and the public without any attempt to explain the world. Above all, this work is a declaration of love for the theater. Absolutely right!, you want to cheer. Especially after two and a half weeks of theater meetings full of images and ideas.

Recordings of three productions invited to this year’s Berlin Theatertreffen – “Bucket List”, “Laius” and “Macbeth” – are available in the 3Sat media library: www.3sat.de/themen/theatertreffen-100.html

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