60 Years of the International Forum

Young theatre makers from West Germany – and initially only from there – would be invited to Berlin to study all the productions at the Theatertreffen, to participate in discussions about them and on other topics and initiate and cultivate personal dialogues. After a prolonged train journey with the obligatory border checks the young assistant dramaturg arrived in Berlin on 11 May. As you might have guessed: That young assistant dramaturg was me! Six ladies and seventeen gentlemen convened, among them actors, dramaturgs, directors and two assistants.

An enticing theatre programme awaited us, with plays by Carl Sternheim, Peter Weiss, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Bertold Brecht, Federico García Lorca, Frank Wedekind, Samuel Beckett, Shakespeare, Ödön von Horváth and a world premiere from Martin Walser. I had already read a great deal about all the productions, and I had attended three of them – those from Darmstadt, Wiesbaden and Frankfurt. I was eager to see whether and how these performances would prove themselves in Berlin.

We found the packed programme of guest productions an experience that would set us new challenges every day; it was like having theatrical contrast baths – very refreshing and inspiring each time. For me, their richness came to epitomise the theatre’s vast possibilities.

We learnt new ways of performing Carl Sternheim: with the staging being perfectly cast and executed precisely and realistically, down to the smallest detail.

Rudolf Noelte’s production of “Three Sisters” from Stuttgart was a true revelation of Chekhov leaving us literally speechless and setting a standard by which I still judge productions today. The performances of Chekhov’s piece by a magnificent ensemble at the Hebbel Theater made us feel its historical period was disturbingly and painfully present!

During a colloquium on theatre architecture whose distinguished contributors included the architects Hans Scharoun, Fritz Bornemann and Werner Düttmann, the actors Bernhard Minetti and Ernst Schröder and the artistic director Kurt Hübner – we were amazed to witness a tense non-dialogue between the director Erwin Piscator, the personification of the 1920s agit-prop theatre, and the conservatively-regarded director Rudolf Noelte. I can still picture how Piscator demonstrated with broad, sweeping gestures the importance he placed on activating motion from the stage down into the auditorium and I can still recall Noelte’s poker face, as he maintained his strict adherence to the fourth wall. The fourth wall was sacred to him, he explained curtly, he wasn’t interested in any revolutionary movements in the auditorium, a proscenium arch was enough for him.

I can still remember the very young Ilse Ritter, who played an elderly spinster in Hans Bauer’s ingenious Darmstadt production of “Doña Rosita”.

I can still feel the musical energy from Hansgünther Heyme’s brilliant Wiesbaden production of Peter Weiss’s “Marat/Sade”, a lively alternative to the world premiere in Berlin.

In our conversations with the artists from the different productions we learned how precise and yet contradictory but also enjoyable talking about theatre can be, especially when, as with Martin Walser’s play “Der schwarze Schwan” (The Black Swan) about guilty fathers and their despairing sons, the dramaturg is a certain Dr. Hellmuth Karasek.

For me the fact that three of the productions invited to the Theatertreffen could not be shown for reasons whatsoever did not detract my experience because with my Austrian passport I could easily travel through Checkpoint Charlie to East Berlin and attend theatre shows there as well. I went to the Deutsches Theater on the off chance and unexpectedly made one of the acting discoveries of my life. I saw the Russian play “Unterwegs” (On The Road) by Victor Rossov, a jaunty theatrical road movie from Moscow to Siberia. Dieter Mann played its young hero. It was his first role at the Deutsches Theater and the charming brashness of his acting won the hearts of the entire audience. They cheered him, it was impossible not to. My enthusiastic report might have persuaded artistic director Harry Buckwitz to invite the Deutsches Theater to Frankfurt for a guest performance of “Unterwegs”. Decades later, Dieter Mann revealed in his autobiography that after his highly acclaimed performance Buckwitz immediately offered to hire him. His salary would be 3000 DM. Mann, who earned 400 GDR-Mark at the Deutsches Theater at the time, turned him down straight away.

As a result of our shared theatre experiences and conversations that often lasted deep into the night, friendly relationships grew among us young theatre makers. Relationships that lasted. During the theatre holidays, I did not go to the mountains, but to Wilhelmshaven and travelled together with the Landesbühne by bus and ferry to performances on Norderney. I enjoyed witnessing the passion and dedication that also go into making theatre at small theatres – especially at small theatres.

The director from Wilhelmshaven, who belonged to our group in Berlin and whom I was visiting, went on to become the artistic director of several theatres. One of his productions can still be seen today at the Berliner Staatsoper. Later, he even asked me to be his son’s godfather.

On the journey back from Berlin to my everyday life as an assistant in Frankfurt I repeatedly thought: imagination and precision – that’s it, theatre is only possible with imagination and precision. I regarded this lesson I learnt in Berlin as a kind of theatrical vaccination. And it still works now.

Four years later I travelled again, but in the opposite direction, to Berlin. As the dramaturg responsible for Hans Hollmann’s production of Horváth’s “Kasimir und Karoline” at Theater Basel, I acted as the ensemble’s travel guide. The Theater Basel was invited to the Theatertreffen for the first time in 1969. So this was my first flight to the Theatertreffen. It would not be the only one.

Congratulations and good luck with the Theatertreffen’s International Forum!

By and with

Joshua Alabi (IF 2023) – Author, Director in Nigeria
Ramsès Bawibadi Alfa (IF 2007) – Independent Actor in Togo
Martine Dennewald (IF 2006) – Co-Artistic Director Festival TransAmériques (FTA) in Canada
Thomas Engel (IF 1999) – Former Managing Director German Centre of the International Theatre Institute (ITI) in Germany
Pathipon (Miss Oat) (IF 2022) – Director, Performer in Thailand
Nada Sabet (IF 2015) – Director, Presenter in Great Britain
Antje Schupp (IF 2013) – Director, Performer in Switzerland
Zoë Svendsen (IF 2009) – Dramaturg, Translator in England
Nadia Tsulukidze (IF 2011) – Performer in Germany

Edgar Wiersocki– Pianist