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WHAT’S ON — Stage DON’T MISS Hof-Theater Berliner Ensemble have launched their open-air, courtyard stage with over two weeks of theatrical and musical performances. Schedules are published a week in advance online. May 27-Jun 20 La Fanciulla del West For the first time since November, the Staatsoper welcomes back Berliners with the premiere of Giacomo Puccini’s Fanciulla. Director Lydia Steier makes her house debut with this notso-typical-tale, set in California during the gold rush. Live performance at Staatsoper Unter den Linden but also available for online streaming. June 13, 16, 19, 24, 27 Krieg und Disco For 48 hours, Volksbühne will cover controversial discussions about the abuse of power, racism and discrimination in theatre with a series of German -language performances, readings and discussions, as well as concerts, including live DJ sets and a performance from the VB’s house band. Jun 4-5 we feel when we finally join in the theatre with the audience and launch the piece into the world. How has it been for you? Was it hard to keep motivated all along? I feel it’s my damn duty! As a leader of a state-sponsored cultural institution, I could not let go. I had to consider every single person’s situation, which were all so different. Our private lives became much more present, the particular situations of each member of the team, their families, et cetera. It was a chance for us to think about how we work, and how do we want to work? I always spoke about the holistic approach – it got a whole new meaning this year! So what else will stick with HAU after the pandemic is over? What we learned from working with digital tools will not disappear. This whole idea of more remote working – we won’t go back to 100-percent duty of presence in the offices for example. The possibilities offered by digital art won’t disappear either. When the first lockdown took place, we were already experimenting with Spy on Me 2, a festival dealing with the digital present; so it forced us to move further into exploring the digital field. Last time we spoke, you were pretty optimistic about the advantages of remote or digital theatre. Are you still? It has to do with reach and accessibility. There are people who are not mobile, who may want to enjoy our theatre. Maybe they have no babysitter, a disability, maybe they’re sick or just simply don’t want to leave the house. Then they can choose when they watch something. It’s quite enticing to think, ‘Ooh, I can watch this later.’ We’ve even discussed the possibility of branching out internationally, working with non-German audiences in mind, for example. So there are great aspects to that digital reach. I remember you saying this forced digitalisation was also a chance to become more inclusive of younger generations. Has this thought materialised? Even before the pandemic, my wish to invest in this full industrial revolution of digitalisation had to do with not wanting to lose touch with a younger Even before the pandemic, my wish to invest in this full industrial revolution of digitalisation had to do with not losing touch with the younger generation. generation that has grown up with this digital extension of their bodies. So it started there: and to thinking with formats, and with theatre artists who are interested in that. The feminist digital collective dgtl fmnsm is the perfect example - they are not necessarily theatre people but they connect with us. This month, you’re also launching the app-based Loulu, a hybrid of game and theatre aimed at teenagers. Right? Yes, it’s an app we developed with onlinetheater. live and it’s aimed at young people, 15 to 17 year olds. You download the app for free and you’re able to follow the interactive story of a fictional lifestyle influencer called Loulu who is investigating research on right-wing milieus. It’s an interactive game that develops over a few weeks, so you have to stay tuned. That’s another exciting way of how we can use and communicate with these digital tools. How do you see the future of digital theatre in economic terms? People aren’t necessarily used or prone to paying for online content. What has been your experience so far? Our first experience with that was Gob Squad’s Show Me A Good Time, it actually was the first in Berlin with a paywall, and it got 711 bookings at the premiere in June 2020. The three revivals in November 2020 sold between 150 and 215 tickets. Of the more recent productions, in March 2021, Kat Válastur’s Eye Lash sold 230 tickets and Adrian Figueroa’s film Proll sold 240. So it’s going pretty well. Meanwhile, we’re still investigating our results with free-access productions. It is all so new for us, we need the time to think things through. Also our ticket service team was not really prepared to think through what it means if people are buying online tickets only. If it’s on demand, then what does that mean? So it’s really about finding the needs of people and matching that with what we think is important. Some people say we should work like Netflix and upload more: for example, it would be €10 per month and you can see everything that HAU is producing. But we’re still investigating options. In our digitally saturated times, theatre is also about escapism and having some time away from your phone. Aren’t you afraid to go too far down the digital lane? No, we will keep creating pieces for our stage, there are so many artists we love in the city, and we want to keep working with them. We have a great new piece by Gob Squad, which will premiere in the fall. We’re also working on two big productions with the feminist singer Christiana Rösinger – we know this piece only works with a full house… Meanwhile, we had a very inspiring talk with our team about rethinking what analogue presence means. To be able to come together again has another resonance. We can have hybrids – coming together to look at something digital. I’m almost afraid we didn’t learn enough from the pandemic. There’s so much to think about! Do you think theatre will be moving towards a dual system, by which there will be analogue productions catering to traditional theatre goers, and digital offerings for younger audiences? It’s not either-or, different people can be reached through different channels. In fact, ‘audience’ isn’t even the best word any more, because sometimes it’s participants or users. I would not want to miss the chance for an institution like HAU to not look further into these developments, it’s important to stay tuned there! But no matter what, the theatre should remain a place where you can switch off from your own thoughts and get inspired again. T 34 <strong>EXB</strong>ERLINER <strong>205</strong>
WHAT’S ON — Stage Preview Stage under the stars at Luxurious open-air settings at Deutsches Theater Few theatres in Berlin can boast one epidemic-proof open-air stage – never mind two! After much anticipation and months of online streaming, Deutsches Theater revived the squandered season with the premiere of PeterLicht’s Tartuffe or The Wise Men’s Pig at their cobbled Vorplatz stage last month. In June, there will be two more outdoor performances, this time in the Innenhof. Both will showcase winners of the annual Autor:innentheatertage festival, a competition for budding playwrights to have their script performed for a month on stage. The full 2021 instalment has been postponed to September, but Berliner theatregoers will be given a taste of the talent with Chris Michalski’s When There’s Nothing Left To Burn You Have To Set Yourself On Fire. It tells the story of Petra as she investigates why Jan L, a former school friend and Bundeswehr soldier in Afghanistan, decided to self-immolate. The Australianborn, Leipzig-based Michalski explores issues of loss and trauma, while asking how we communicate and process experiences in a fast-paced world. Then there’s Gaia googelt nicht (Gaia doesn’t Google), by previous Autor:innentheatertage winner Nele Stuhler, which transports the audience to the beginning of time. This is only the latest adventure with Stuhler’s mythical creator Gaia, who tackles life’s most pressing questions and confronts existential myths: why is the world built the way it is? Where do things begin? Where do they end? For those lucky enough to snatch a ticket to either one of these premieres, remember to pack your FFP2 mask because you’ll need it – yes, even during the performance. – LR When There’s Nothing Left To Burn You Have To Set Yourself On Fire, June 5; Gaia googelt nicht, June 9, German with English subtitles, Deutsches Theater, Mitte Review Method to meta-madness Hamlet live stream at Gorki D: Christian Weise ★ ★★★★ To see or not to see, that is the question. After premiering in February 2020, Christian Weise’s Hamlet makes a live-stream return this June. Weise effortlessly breathes life into this classic tragedy with a kooky cast and comedic rewrite of the familiar script. It’s a stylistically ambitious, playfully post-dramatic and intellectually compelling approach to Shakespeare’s most performed play – making it a must-see production. Horatio, an artistically frustrated student from New York based in Berlin, is directing an avantgarde Hamlet film in which he hopes to make some profound statement about Germany. What exactly, even he’s not quite sure. The haunting of Hamlet by what appears to be the spectre of Karl Marx – played by Gorki veteran Ruth Reinecke in her last premiere performance – is just one ironic, cul-de-sac attempt at enriching this meta-narrative. It’s associative, not definitive, and that plays to the piece’s strength. Then there’s the wall: a literal barrier that separates the action and the audience, as scenes are filmed on a painted movie set full of distorted perspectives, before being projected back onto the stage façade in an IMAX-style experience. Of course, this wall is broken several times, itself a metatheatrical act, and of course a historically symbolic one for Berlin. Particular highlights are Aram Tafreshian’s stone-cold, intense performance as Claudius and Svenja Liesau’s Hamlet, who replaces Shakespearean soliloquies with Gorkistandard, out-of-character rants, here caricatured in an exaggerated Berliner dialect with icks and juts aplenty. Overall, Weise delivers a refreshing, selfreflexive piece that is both surprisingly faithful and daringly innovative. Expect cartoon-esque knitted wigs, a touch of breast-grabbing and a lot of laughter. June 9 with English subtitles - 7:30pm available online for 24 hours DON’T MISS How the Time Goes Forced Entertainment is back with a video performance in seven parts. Recorded between March and May 2021, it explores and pokes fun at the strangeness of the pandemic, from Covid tests to Zoom quizzes. Each episode lasts between 25 and 60 minutes. Episode one kicks off on June 23, 20:00, free VOD Pugs in Love 2021 Gorki’s annual Queer Week will be fully digital this year, meaning you can celebrate, commemorate and educate yourself about Berlin’s LG- BTQIA+ community from the comfort of your sofa. Podcasts, workshops, theatre films and live talks can all be accessed from Gorki’s website. Events in English and German. Jun 17-19 DEUTSCHES THEATER BERLIN For programme and tickets visit deutschestheater.de/en
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