Berlin has done well at this year’s Theatertreffen. Among the 10 most remarkable productions is Hakan Savaş Mican’s adaptation of Unser Deutschlandmärchen, a true masterclass of acting from Taner Şahintürk and Sesede Terziyan.
Florentina Holzinger’s SANCTA, which had a short Volksbühne run last fall, is truly a life-giving performance, its rendition of Paul Hindemith’s Sancta Susanna descending with shocking grace into a Satanic mass that deeply believes in the positive power of art.
And Rene Pollesch’s final work before his death, ja nichts ist okay, remains must-see theatre. Berlin audiences will also recognise the name and absurdist style of the Deutsches Theater’s Anita Vulesica, whose latest engagement with Georges Perec, Die Maschine oder: Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh (“the machine or: over every crest is rest”) comes to Berlin from Schauspielhaus Hamburg.
And Ersan Mondtag, who last year delivered Woyzeck at the Berliner Ensemble, presents Sam Max’s enigmatic Double Serpent as a looping multimedia nightmare about an unsettling sexual encounter. But for something really novel (and I’m not talking about the literary reworkings of Garcia Lorca, Brecht or Kim de l’Horizon), look to the innovative use of technology in this festival.
Meryl Tankard’s Kontakthof – Echoes of ’78 sees bodies on screen confront bodies on stage, as those who took part in Pina Bausch’s original 1978 performance now have to encounter their dancing selves from almost forty years ago, reckoning with what time has done.
Another consideration of time is [EOL]. End of Life, which calls itself a “virtual ruin landscape”. In this immersive experience from Victoria Halper & Kai Krösche (DARUM), six participants at a time can don the VR headsets and find themselves kidnapped by a virtual realm that is refusing to allow parts of itself to be deleted – what promises to be a fascinating reflection on the process of selection.
- Various locations, May 2-18, German with English surtitles, details.
