How ridiculous, how brutal it is to live under capitalism. I recently saw Anita Vulesica’s Die Gehaltserhöhung (“the pay raise”) at Deutsches Theater, an admirable adaptation of Georges Perec’s The Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise, which highlights the surreal contortions of being an employee. Looping through the text on stage, the raise request devolves into pandemonium. The actors wear shoulder pads underneath their suits. And, as they “gird up [their] loins and make up [their] mind to go and see [their] head of department” they grow increasingly agitated, flinging themselves all around the stage – literally bouncing off the walls.
Berlin theatre has never been afraid to think about political economy – or the unfair distribution of wealth and resources under which we live. Bertolt Brecht, the great playwright and, in many ways, father of the city’s contemporary theatre scene, wrote in 1945 about how little this theme was present in the theatre of the US.
There’s a reason the right wants to defund theatre… Don’t let them do it
“The mention of money in commercial theatre,” he wrote in his diary, “is as rare as a cancer patient talking about cancer.” For the man who wrote Rise and Fall of The City of Mahagonny and Mother Courage and Her Children, this absence was eerie. The workings of capitalism have long been centre stage in this city, from Brecht through Heiner Müller to the late great René Pollesch.
Today, though, it’s not the analysis of capitalism, but, sadly, its offstage imperatives that are commanding attention. The current CDU-led city administration has cut Berlin’s culture budget for this year. In response, to raise funds and attention about Berlin theatre’s plight, the Berliner Ensemble turned its stage into a bedroom, auctioning off an evening sleeping on a prop bed in its Großen Haus, a stunt that brought in €1,500.
Of course, one doesn’t always have to pay €1,500 for intimate access to Berlin theatre. But the cuts do mean the theatre that does exist will be more expensive. It’s not merely less culture that Berlin’s current administration is aiming for, it’s also less accessible culture. Our dear mayor has been quoted saying, “I wonder, if tickets at certain theaters need be offered so inexpensively.”
The mention of money in commercial theatre is as rare as a cancer patient talking about cancer.
Continuing to ‘just ask questions’ while justifying the extraordinary cuts to Berlin’s culture budget, Kai Wegner thought he had us stumped when he posed, with oblivious classism, “is it right that the cashier at the supermarket, who probably rather rarely goes to the Staatsoper, should subsidise the tickets with her taxes?”
However, despite Wegner and Culture Minister Joe Chialo’s best efforts, there are still cheap seats to be found this March. Berlin’s anchor of the Freie Szene, Sophiensaele, keeps its base tickets around €15 by soliciting people to pay more if they can. Deutsches Theater is celebrating International Women’s Day with €15 tickets for Pinar Karabalut’s intense rewriting of Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, Der Zähmung Widerspenstigkeit, and Prima Facie, about a lawyer who defends men accused of sexual assault who is assaulted herself. On March 16, the Deutsche Oper has a Generationenvorstellung, which means children get in for €10 and retirees for €29 to see the well-made, if problematic, Intermezzo.
There is only more to see in the second half of March. Head back to Deutsches Theater on March 18 for a half-priced viewing of their March premier, Der Liebling, a pop culture fantasia about women in competition with each other, written by Svenja Viola Bungarten and directed by mistress of the absurd Anita Vulesica. On March 24, the Schaubühne is offering half-priced tickets to their newest show, the German translation of Martin Crimps’ Attempts on her life, a postmodern exploration of how one life might contain multitudes (terrorist, porn star, even racist car).
And then you can round out your month at the Berliner Ensemble’s Theatertag on March 31, where both houses feature pieces at half-price. Sibel Kikilli (of Game of Thrones fame) will perform Michel Friedman’s Fremd at the Neues Haus – which, with the Brandmauer burning, is more relevant than ever. And, on Brecht’s old mainstage, you can catch Yasmina Reza’s Kunst, an exploration of male friendship and the artwork that causes it to fall apart.
Of course, the thing about theatre at these prices – even in this economy – is that it can, really, bring us all together. That might be idealistic of me. But there’s a reason that the right wants to defund theatre and restrict it to a privilege of the few. Don’t let them do it. Get your hands on those cheap seats, show out, show up, and enjoy the show.
