Preview of the Framing Programme: Drama & Discourse
The framing programme for this year’s Theatertreffen focusses on drama and discourse: it consists of a discourse programme that examines themes from the 10 selected productions with conversations, film screenings and an exhibition at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele and the new format Mehr Drama!, which has been conceived jointly with the Verband Deutscher Bühnen- und Medienverlage (VDB) and focusses on new voices in contemporary playwriting.
The full framing programme will be published together with the programme schedule on the Berliner Festspiele website on 2 April, when accreditation also opens for the events with an admission charge.
New format Mehr Drama!
To begin Mehr Drama! on 14 May Sivan Ben Yishai, Ferdinand Schmalz, Gerhild Steinbuch and Paula Thielecke will discuss the current state of contemporary playwriting under the title Vom Schreiben und Spielen (On Writing and Performance).
From 14 to 16 May Sivan Ben Yishai (Suhrkamp Verlag), Necati Öziri (Felix Bloch Erben), Sasha Marianna Salzmann (Verlag der Autoren), Ferdinand Schmalz (S. Fischer Verlage), Gerhild Steinbuch (Rowohlt Verlag) and Paula Thielecke (henschel SCHAUSPIEL) will each present one new voice in contemporary playwriting that they have personally nominated.
The selected dramatists are Dora Yuemin Cheng, Lennart Kos, Jara Nassar, Sharon Dodua Otoo, Laura Uribe and Leonie Ziem. heir texts will be presented within Mehr Drama! in classic readings with well-known actors and accompanied by conversations. The readings will all take place in German. Simultaneous translation into English will also be provided for the follow-up conversations with the authors.
14 May: How Long to Live, How Long to Love?
Gerhild Steinbuch & Leonie Ziem | Sivan Ben Yishai & Jara Nassar
In Das große Gleichgültige Leonie Ziem presents the scenario of a lottery for 300 years of human life with linguistic virtuosity and raises the question whether such an extension of our lifespan is actually desirable. In Hoch und immer höher Jara Nassar shows two characters meeting in Beirut and examines whether love is possible under the simmering threat of war.
15 May: Searching for Language
Sasha Marianna Salzmann & Sharon Dodua Otoo | Paula Thielecke & Laura Uribe
In On the right side / Auf der rechten Seite the winner of the Ingeborg Bachmann Prize Sharon Dodua Otoo tells the story of a sudden loss of language as her bilingual (German/English) text searches for identity in German society. Enabling otherwise absent voices to be heard and seen also provides the basis for Backyard [Ein Suchgelände] by Laura Uribe (co-authored with Sabina Aldana), an artistic examination of the phenomenon of violent disappearances in Mexico.
16 May: Past as Present
Necati Öziri & Lennart Kos | Ferdinand Schmalz & Dora Yuemin Cheng
In IRIDIUM on Earth Lennart Kos tells of the eventful life of the magician Buddy, creating a highly imaginative play with strong dialogue about the happiness – and the tragedy – of human relationships. In Sprache/Spiel 语言·游戏, Dora Yuemin Cheng searches for a form of expression to counteract the forgetting and fading of language, memory and one’s own history and creates new spaces of poetic possibility.
Mehr Drama! is sponsored by the Heinz und Heide Dürr Stiftung.
Discourse Programme
This discursive programme is curated for the first time by the theatre, film and media critic Matthias Dell and invites visitors to the Haus der Berliner Festspiele to further explore the themes of the 10 selected productions. Two films, three podium discussions with well-known guests on aesthetic and sociopolitical issues and an exhibition in the foyer of the festival theatre offer surprising links between the productions and the challenges of our time. The podium discussions will be conducted in German with simultaneous translation into English provided.
Podium Discussions
3 May: Why are the Left also to Blame for the Right?
Taking Julian Hetzel’s production Three Times Left is Right as a starting point, pop theorist Diedrich Diederichsen and former CDU General Secretary Ruprecht Polenz talk about the reasons for the success of right-wing rhetoric and what can be done to counter it.
11 May: Why are Workers Only Classy on Stage?
Sebastian Hartmann’s production Der Hauptmann von Köpenick revolves around an unnamed worker who is able to adopt the role of an Army officer and overcome class barriers by putting on a uniform. In their conversation the rapper Ebow and Professor of Social Work Francis Seeck consider the topic of classism in culture and society.
12 May: Why Not Create a Fairer Future Instead of Wallowing in Memories?
If family policy had been more equable 100 years ago, Tennessee Williams would never have written about escaping the intolerable present in Die Glasmenagerie. In this conversation the journalist and author Teresa Bücker and former top manager Vera Schneevoigt investigate why to this day conditions still have not fundamentally changed.
Film Screenings
3 May: How Do We Talk About #MeToo Before #MeToo Existed?
Arthur Schnitzler’s novella Fräulein Else is a gripping and multi-faceted analysis of the abuse of power, double standards and the commercialisation of the female body. How can something be discussed that a patriarchal culture treats by openly doubting its existence, reversing the roles of victim and abuser or shrouding it in silence? Helke Sander’s film Die Deutschen und ihre Männer – Bericht aus Bonn from 1989 finds an extremely original form to do this and plunges the Bonn republic from Gerhart Baum (FDP) to Werner Sonne (ARD) into a public relations crisis. The film will be shown with English subtitles.
10 May: What Does the Womanly Face of War Look Like?
“Everything that we know about war, we know from men’s voices,” is a line from Svetlana Alexievich’s text, quoted in Wallenstein. The 2014 film Meine Mutter, ein Krieg und ich by the directing duo Tamara Trampe and Johann Feindt sensitively processes Trampe’s family story and with it a key piece of 20th century history.
The films will each be shown after an introduction by Matthias Dell.
Collective Exhibition It Is Reel – Theatertreffen Meets TikTok
What would the 2026 Theatertreffen look like on TikTok? Experts on the digital present mediate between the analogue and digital space: based on the works in the selection of 10 productions they curate and comment on how people present themselves in the biggest attention generator of our time. The exhibition in the foyer of the festival theatre will be open every day throughout the festival period from one hour before the first event begins. Admission is free of charge.
The discourse programme is funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung/bpb).
International Forum
The Theatertreffen invites 34 international theatre makers to visit the festival, reflect on it and exchange ideas and experiences across artistic and national boundaries. More than 800 artists from around 90 countries applied in response to the open call.
Theatertreffen-Blog
ive bloggers are invited to report critically direct from the Theatertreffen. The aim is to expand individual perspectives, develop the conception and execution of journalistic formats and to try out new approaches to engaging with theatrical forms.
Press Contact
Sara Franke, Anna Hinz, Wiebke Müller
presse@berlinerfestspiele.de
+49 30 254 89 269
Go To Theatertreffen Press Section