The 2025 Theatertreffen Closes With “Double Serpent”
Berliner Festspiele’s Theatertreffen ends tonight, 18 May, with the second performance of “Double Serpent” by Sam Max, directed by Ersan Mondtag and produced by Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. At today’s matinée, Carmen Steinert received the Alfred-Kerr-Acting-Award for her performance in “Blutbuch”, and the jury of critics invited the audience to their traditional concluding discussion at Haus der Berliner Festspiele this afternoon.
The 62nd festival edition once again enjoyed great popularity with the audience; almost all events were sold out.
Around 21.200 visitors attended a total of 53 events of this 17-day festival, which is funded by the GermanFederal Cultural Foundation. 16.664 audience members watched the performances of the ten selected productions at Haus der Berliner Festspiele, at Deutsches Theater Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater and Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, or visited the performative virtual reality installation “[EOL]. End of Life” at Gropius Bau over its ten-day run. The total percentage of sold seats is 98,4.
Around 4.540 visitors attended the freeprogramme – including panels, award ceremonies, and the Theatertreffen-party – at the Festspielhaus. Via the media libraries of 3sat, ZDF and Berliner Festspiele, the recordings of the four “StarkeStücke” and otherdigital content reached more than 24.700 views over the period from 2 to 18 May (as of 18 May, 18.00h).
194 journalists from Germany, Austria and Switzerland as well as many other countries provided media coverage from Theatertreffen.
One of the festival’s highlights was the both dramaturgically and technically impressive performative installation in virtual reality “[EOL]. End of Life” by directing duo DARUM (Victoria Halper and Kai Krösche) from Vienna. The audience gave standing ovations to the three sold out performances each of the powerful opera piece “SANCTA” by Florentina Holzinger at Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and the moving dance theatre “Kontakthof – Echoes of ’78” by Pina Bausch / Meryl Tankard at Haus der Berliner Festspiele. The Berlin festival audience received the productions “Blutbuch” from Theater Magdeburg and “Die Maschine oder: Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh” from Deutsches SchauSpielHaus Hamburg with equally great enthusiasm.
On the occasion of the International Forum’s 60th anniversary, the framing programme “Forum Theatertreffen 1965-2025” focussed on the creative work of 53 alumni from 60 years. International artists Wang Chong, Dima Levytskyi, Kieron Jina, Carolina Mendonça, Nofar Sela, Laila Soliman, Sebastián Squella and Tea Tupajić presented their work in seven performative pieces. Contemporary drama was featured in readings by authors Emre Akal, Philippe Heule, Anastasiia Kosodii, Kay Matter, Nele Stuhler and Olivia Wenzel. Numerous Night Talks with the audience flanked the ten selected productions; two discussion events reflected the narrowing economic and political leeway of the theatre. At yesterday’s conclusion of the anniversary programme, the event “The Forum’s Forum” featured lecture performances by the 33participants of this year.
Tothe framing programme’s brochure
Theatertreffen-Blog
Fiveyoung journalists accompanied and reflected on the festival events – to be read on theatertreffen-blog.de.
2025 Awards
Director Christopher Rüping was distinguished with the 2025 Theatre-Award-Berlin of Stiftung Preußische Seehandlung, which comes with a prize sum of 20,000 Euros. Director Anita Vulesica received the 3sat-Award (10,000 Euros) for her production of “Die Maschine oder: Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh”. Today, Sunday, Carmen Steinert received the Alfred-Kerr-Acting-Award (5,000 Euros) for her performance in “Blutbuch”. This year’s sole juror for the award was actor BettinaStucky.
Watch it again via the Media Library of Berliner Festspiele
The recordings of “BernardaAlbas Haus”, “DieGewehre der Frau Carrar / Würgendes Blei”, “UnserDeutschlandmärchen” and “DoubleSerpent”, which have been especially produced for the festival in the series of “Starke Stücke”, will continue to be available via the 3satMedia Library and BerlinerFestspiele’s Media Library until May 2026.
The welcoming addresses by Matthias Pees, Claudia Roth and Nora Hertlein-Hull, the panel discussions “WhatNow?” and “NarrowingSpaces” as well as the recording of today’s concludingjury discussion also continue to be accessible.
Theatertreffen-Jury:
The critics constituting the jury for the 2026 Theatertreffen are: Alexandra Kedves, Vincent Koch, Sabine Leucht, Falk Schreiber, Martin Thomas Pesl, Christine Wahl and Sascha Westphal. Critic Yaël Koutouan, who had originally been appointed to the 2026 jury, had to pause her jury activities for personal reasons; Sascha Westphal will serve in the jury in her stead until the end of the year. The new jury already began viewing for the next festival on 17 January 2025. The viewing period ends with the conclusion of the current calendar year on 31 December 2025. The female quota of at least 50 percent in the position of director will still hold for the 2026 selection process.
By rota, critics Eva Behrendt, Janis El-Bira, Valeria Heintges and Katrin Ullmann will leave the jury with the conclusion of this year’s Theatertreffen. Berliner Festspiele would like to thank all jurors for their great efforts and outstanding work.
Save the Date: The 63rd Theatertreffen will take place from 1 to 17 May 2026.
Current press photos from the festival are available for download from the website’s press area. © Berliner Festspiele; Photo: Fabian Schellhorn
Theatertreffen is funded by the GermanFederal Cultural Foundation. Funded by the StateMinister for Culture and the Media.
The main funders of the accompanying programme “Forum Theatertreffen 1965-2025” are the FederalAgency for Civic Education/bpb and the Heinzand Heide Dürr Foundation. Special thanks go to Goethe-Institut for their longstanding partnership with the International Forum.
The festival would like to thank all of its co-operationpartners and supporters as well as all participants for their co-operation.