The Theatertreffen is the high point of
the German theatrical calendar. For two weeks each May, under the
principal aegis of the Berliner Festspiele, the ten “most notable
productions” of the past twelve months in the German-speaking world are
invited to perform in Berlin theatres, surrounded by a programme of
discussions, ancillary works, criticism and so forth. The net must
necessarily be cast wide, and the five presentations I saw during the
first half of the festival showed few signs of cleaving to a prevailing
orthodoxy. Coincidentally, however, they fell into two camps: three of
the shows originated in Berlin and were being reprised in their
original venues, the other two being adaptations of plays by Henrik
Ibsen originally staged beyond Germany’s borders and presented here at
the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
Ein Volksfeind (
An Enemy Of The People), from the
Schauspielhaus Zürich, updated matters smartly. Ibsen’s Dr Stockmann
discovers that his town spa’s waters are rendered toxic by run-off from
tanneries, and his truth-telling is first championed then betrayed by
the town newspaper. In Dietmar Dath’s adaptation the toxicity is due to
fracking and the People’s Herald has become the blog portal DEMOnline.
Stefan Pucher’s lively production climaxes with a town meeting at which
Stockmann is outmanoeuvred, staged by inviting the audience to split
between those keen to hear Stockmann himself, who remain in the
auditorium, and those interested in the mayor’s denunciation of him,
who move into the foyer, with mutual video links.
Alas, few of the same compliments can be paid to the production of
John Gabriel Borkman from Vienna’s
Burgtheater im Akademietheater. Australian director Simon Stone has
also updated Ibsen’s story of the arrogant former bank director still
hoping to make a comeback years after his dismissal for fraud. Stone,
however, has paraphrased the entire script, and his staging amounts to
two hours of people doing little more than shouting at each other in a
constant snowstorm.
Even at four hours, Daniela Löffner’s production of Turgenev’s
Väter Und Söhne (
Fathers And Sons) in the Deutsches
Theater’s Kammerspiele is light and compelling. Löffner uses Brian
Friel’s 1997 adaptation as her basis, and adopts a minimal staging with
actors in modern dress retiring to the front rows of the in-the-round
seating when not on stage. Marcel Kohler walks an adept line as student
Arkadij, torn between the lifestyle of his upbringing and the nihilism
professed by his university friend Bazarow (Alexander Khuon). All the
effects and environments seem to arise organically from the ensemble’s
actions, although it’s a little disconcerting when a break between acts
is signalled by a performance of Laurie Anderson’s “Big Science”.
The Maxim Gorki is the most consciously multi-cultural of Berlin’s main
theatres, and a natural home for Austrian-Israeli director Yael Ronen’s
piece
The Situation. Ronen
begins with the brilliant idea of using a series of German lessons for
newly arrived Israelis and Palestinians in Berlin as springboards for
illustrations of aspects of “the situation”, but is either unable to
sustain this mode or mistakenly thinks that subsiding into a series of
first-person testimonies will prove more effective.
I did not expect either to like or enjoy
der die mann (an untranslatable
title which the surtitles render as
He/She
Man) at the Volksbühne. I had anticipated one of the
“post-dramatic” screeds characteristic of the venue, but Herbert
Fritsch and his Beatle-suited ensemble of seven (plus four musicians)
have created a tight, bright bundle of nonsense... deliberate nonsense,
highlighting the arbitrariness and absurdity of language. Passages of
gibberish (including a beautiful parody of a Schubert
Lied), constant slapstick and
technical jiggery-pokery combine to winning effect.
Written for the Financial
Times.