Theatertreffen-Blog

The relationship between art and criticism has always been fraught. Goethe’s 18th century quote is well-known: “Strike him dead, the dog! He is a critic!” In the early 20th century, Virginia Woolf described her own unease with criticism and her wish for a different approach in more detail: “If behind the erratic gunfire of the press the author felt that there was another kind of criticism, the opinion of people reading for the love of reading, slowly and unprofessionally, and judging with great sympathy and yet with great severity, might this improve the quality of his work?”

Both the creators of art and their critics claim that they love art. But the opinions of what this means specifically for criticism differ widely. It’s about love, but also about insults, the freedom of art, power. This was made evident not least by the events at Staatstheater Hannover last year, where the former ballet director Marco Goecke smeared the feces of his dachshund into the face of the FAZ-newspaper’s dance critic after a short verbal altercation. The choreographer paid the price for letting his feelings run away with him: He was suspended, dismissed and banned from the premises. This story is the basis of this year’s production “Die Hundekot-Attacke” from Theaterhaus Jena.

What can we do to place the equally hostile and symbiotic relationship of theatre and criticism into a new light? I think: We can present different perspectives on theatre criticism. That is why this edition will feature several guest contributions: Claude de Demo, company member at Berliner Ensemble, will write about how she perceives theatre criticism from an actor’s point of view. Jette Steckel, whose production of “Die Vaterlosen (Fatherless)” has been invited to this year’s Theatertreffen, looks at it from the position of a director. And how do authors feel when their plays are written about and judged, perhaps not even in their original version? Nis-Momme Stockmann will tell us about it when he visits our editorial team.

Of course, the fact that conditions of theatre criticism have changed also comes into play. Newspaper circulations are decreasing; cultural television and radio programmes are becoming rarer or are moved into the late hours of the evening. Online sites have to find financing somewhere, and of course it matters who provides the funding. In addition, all interest – and all decrease of interest – is made measurable by technical devices. Two members of the web portal nachtkritik.de and Simon Strauß, theatre critic of the daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, will give us an impression of their everyday editorial work.

And finally: Of course it matters who criticises theatre. That is why it would have been even better to be able to invite emerging journalists from across the world. The reality of financial capabilities results in a perspective limited to Europe. But even so, and look at this. Our critics do have different points of view: They look at theatre from the perspectives of Switzerland, Austria, East Germany, the Anglo-Saxon region and with a Bosnian-German perception. How cool will it be to have them report on their view of the theatre world for two and a half weeks? Committed to the audience, the readers and the art. But with a keen eye for what matters to theatre makers with whom they, after all, share their love of the theatre. And with strong arguments for their aesthetic judgements.