We will not stop remembering and reminding!
For us, focusing on pressing social issues is one of the core tasks of theatre, especially when a pandemic sometimes seems to draw a veil over everything else.
With this in mind, we have decided to make an issue the central focus of our season that is disturbingly prevailing. From opening our season with the documentary theatre project “Saal 600 / Room 600” to the last premiere, “Who is We?” in the Kongresshalle, we will be returning repeatedly to the unbroken thread of racial thinking, racism and right-wing violence in our society. In so doing, we are refusing to draw a closing line under our reflections of historical events, refusing to accept a far-too-prevalent silence. This silence is also the thread linking three texts by Elfriede Jelinek on the subject of German sensitivity, Nazi terror and the NSU trials, which I will be bringing together in one show.
Two world premieres by renowned playwrights deal in very different ways with the limits of civilisation in the face of impending global catastrophes: Philipp Löhle brings humour to his account of mankind’s self-destruction, whilst Nis-Momme Stockmann takes a look at Fukushima 10 years after the catastrophe there.
International networking and an embracing of our diverse urban society are reflected respectively in the Import/Export Weekends and Cafés and our performances with surtitles. We continue our noted exploration of digital formats with two very different productions that invite audiences to watch and interact both virtually and in physical attendance.
But that still leaves a lot of room for world drama. We are staging “Amphitryon” as seen through the eyes of Heinrich von Kleist and director Anne Lenk. Shakespeare and Schiller both feature in the calendar, and Andreas Kriegenburg’s production of Pierre Corneille’s “L’Illusion Comique” will be celebrating two archetypical characteristics of theatre, very much in line with the title of the original. I look forward to welcoming you!
Jan Philipp Gloger
Director of Drama
