Theater

Mutual influence has always been a feature of European theater. But the 1990's were characterized by a hitherto unique intensity of artistic cross-pollination. In particular, the French, Flemish, English and German scenes learned extensively from each other.

In Germany the Frankfurter Theater am Turm (TAT) provided a stage on which European co-productions were shown. Here, an artist such as Jan Fabre, who seeks connections and intersections among different art forms, could become a role model for young theater makers who questioned traditional divisions in theater and invented the "cross-over” phenomenon. Fabre still sees himself as an "all-in-one"artist and is an author, choreographer, film director and graphic artist in one.

A Cross-Linked Festival and Co-Production Landscape

But the development of a cross-linked festival and co-production landscape may well have been of far greater significance than the influence of individual theater makers and production facilities. Funding was still available, and theater budgets had not yet been cut. It was therefore still possible to see new theater forms and dance theater like that of the Belgian choreographer Anne Theresa de Keersmaeker and the French choreographer Maguy Marin in theaters such as Frankfurt's TAT or Hamburg's Kampnagelfabrik – while dance evenings by Pina Bausch were presented at the Avignon Theater Festival. During this tome, Avignon was also a cross-roads of contemporary theater. Many German theater makers could be seen at the world's largest theater festival, while the French celebrated Heiner Müller and compared him to Brecht, Beckett and Genet. In 1991 the theater festival itself was dedicated to Heiner Müller; among other things, there was a "Nuit Müller" (i.e. "Müller night") in which one could see Müller productions in French from 10:00 in the evening until 4:00 in the morning.

France – Germany

The difference between the French and German theater systems may well have been of interest to German theater makers. Someone crossing the Rhine from Germany had good reason to be proud of a unique network of municipal theaters with established ensembles and standard repertoire. For all intents and purposes, this did not and still does not exist in France. But during Jacques Lang's term of office as Minister of Culture, the French were compensated with a series of new centers for spoken and dance theater, the "Centre Nationale du Theatre" and the "Centre Nationale de la Danse" in which the border areas between theater and dance were explored before they were in Germany. In addition, the French theater system displayed a greater permeability between the free and established scenes. But the German theaters improved and can point today to the fact that – among other things - free groups such as Rimini Protokoll, with its field research on urban space, are taken up by established theaters very quickly.

Parallel to these factors, the French public developed a taste for German director's theater, and celebrated theater innovators such as Frank Castorph with his stage direction style of deconstruction. After the turn of the millenium, Thomas Ostermeier became director of Berlin's Schaubühne. The Avignon public adored him. He embodied the German directorial virtue of not just presenting pieces, but of fathoming inter-relationships among the figures of a piece. This stands in sharp contrast to the tame, run-of-the-mill literary theater cultivated by many French directors.

England – Germany

In directorial matters, German theater makers had always had a greater affinity for their English colleagues. But it was most of all pieces presented by young authors on the other side of the Channel that made German theater makers in the mid-90's feel especially close to English theater. Here, too, Thomas Ostermeier played an important role. He turned the Baracke (i.e. barracks) of the Berlin German Theater into one of Europe's most exciting stages for the new generation of theater makers by introducing young, English pieces such as Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking, Enda Walsh's Disco Pigs, and David Harrower's Knives in Hens. Under his direction, the Schaubühne is, according to Ostermeier, the one and only theater world-wide that now has all of the pieces of the prematurely deceased Sara Kane in its repertoire.

However, the fact that German theaters proceeded to develop a tightly meshed network of author sponsorship based on the English model was of greater overall significance than the influence of individual British theater authors. In the meantime, German municipal theaters have recruited their own house authors, commission a great many pieces, and have established festivals of contemporary drama with European and German pieces; while Flemish and Dutch directors such as Luc Perceval and Johan Simos play an important role in German theaters, and the French public's preference for German director's theater continues unabated.