Last night this year’s 3sat prize was awarded to Nicolas Stemann’s Faust I + II. Some said it was a worthy recipient: the acting of Philipp Hochmair and Sebastian Rudolph was irrefutably intense, the director proved capable of applying just about every German theatre style from Brechtian to post-dramatic, and the whole performance struck just the right balance between classical and avant-garde theatre, splitting the difference between Platonov and John Gabriel Borkman. Others were less satisfied with the result: if the prize was to be given to “innovative, zukunftsweisende Arbeiten” [innovative and pioneering work] maybe Borkman might have been a better candidate, for instance, or anther Stemann production, or either Faust I or II.
I guess it all depends on how you define “bemerkenswert,” the only official criterion for the TT jury. This term is of course subjective, and the jury’s choices consciously or subconsciously form both the international and national definition of what German theatre looks like.
So, I asked all the members of the TT blog team to come up with the most remarkable production they saw this season, giving them only three criteria.
1. The production must be bemerkenswert.
2. It can be any kind of staged performance
3. It doesn’t have to be a German-speaking production.
And so, here are this year’s TT-bloggers most bemerkenswerte productions. Continue reading Most bemerkenswert, according to the TT-Bloggers
Category: Before Your Very Eyes
Gob Squad: Simon Will on time and collectives
Gob Squad’s Before Your Very Eyes combines two of the 2012 Theatertreffen’s “remarkable” aspects: time and collectives. More specifically, this transnational performance collective raises questions about the subjectivity of time.
Before Your Very Eyes is a performance with seven teenagers who perform their lives in fast forward. In the “safe environment” of a glass house, a voice from above guides them through their lives. It also confronts them with questions and challenges on their way from puberty to mid-life crisis and ’til death do them part. Their journey into the future is linked to the past when the kids are faced with interviews with themselves – recorded when they were two years younger.
The following interview might serve a similar purpose some years from now, as I talked to Simon Will, one of Gob Squad’s seven core members since 1999, about life’s challenges and changes.
Continue reading Gob Squad: Simon Will on time and collectives
Die Premierenkritik: Don't stop me now!
In „Before Your Very Eyes“ schickt das Performancekollektiv Gob Squad sieben Kinder durch ein Leben im Schnelldurchlauf. Kinder auf der Bühne sind meist süß und sehr gefällig, diese hier aber stellen das Älterwerden und das Leben der Erwachsenen grundsätzlich in Frage. Im Gegensatz zu Pippi Langstrumpf werden sie dabei ernst genommen.
„Hi kids. How are you?“
Sie sind gut drauf, die sieben Kids aus Gent, die Gob Squad dem Publikum mitgebracht hat. Und wie! Vom Publikum getrennt durch eine einseitig blickdichte Spiegelwand, toben sich die jungen Darsteller in einem Kinderzimmer so richtig aus. Continue reading Die Premierenkritik: Don't stop me now!