Festival in Germany

From 31 October to 8 November 2009, the Goethe-Institut, the Theaterbüro Mülheim an der Ruhr, and the Staatsschauspiel Dresden are inviting seven of the 16 ensembles to a European Theatre Festival in Germany to perform the plays written especially for the "After the Fall" project. The productions chosen for the festival not only offer an insight into the various theatre landscapes but also profoundly reflect the diverse ways that the fall of the Berlin Wall and its consequences are seen in European societies. The German Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) has arranged a lecture series with well-known speakers to accompany the guest performances.

Overview of the festival dates

Download the festival's calendar  (PDF, about 200 kb)
Schedule of the series of lectures in Dresden  (PDF, about 200 kb)
Schedule of the series of lectures in Mülheim  (PDF, about 150 kb)
 

The seven productions

Antidot (Antidote) by Nicoleta Esinencu German by Marina Neacşu / Rumanian with German supertitles From Chişinău, Republic of Moldova / Mobile European Trailer Theatre

Hardened towards violence, weapons, and war, with killing as a means of political manipulation: Antidot (Antidote) presents a dark, sombre work before and after the fall of the Wall. The Republic of Moldova became independent after the Soviet Union collapsed, but Esinencu is describing a country on the margins of Europe where the old mentalities and the cynicism of those in power have continued unchanged. More...

Für alle reicht es nicht (There's not enough to go round) by Dirk Laucke From Dresden, Germany / Staatsschauspiel Dresden
	In the course of their shady dealings, Jo and Anna find a truck laden with Chinese refugees in the former GDR – and don't really know what they should do with them. Für alle reicht es nicht (There's not enough to go round) is not a play about the Wende, but about the problems in making ends meet nowadays. "The Wall is still standing," said Dirk Laucke. "It's only shifted further outside." More...

Czekając na Turka (Waiting for the Turks) by Andrzej Stasiuk German by Olaf Kühl / Polish with German supertitles From Krakau, Poland / Stary Teatr
	Ex-smugglers, young and old border guards and the woman who ran the little newspaper store all meet at an old border crossing point between Poland and Slovakia. It's a group comprising figures and generations from today's Poland, oscillating between the longing for the old order and new, promising future. Stasiuk's play is a biting farce about the taboos in Polish society. More...

Falsifikator (The Forger) by Goran Marković German by Gudrun Krivokapić / Serbian with German supertitles From Belgrade, Serbia / Beogradsko Dramsko Pozorište
	In Falsifikator (The Forger), Goran Marković explores the reasons for Yugoslavia's collapse after 1989 and goes back to review the Tito years. Taking the idealistic forger Adelko as an example, his play describes the failed utopia of the Yugoslavian Third Way. What remains is a society without ideals and replete with violence. More...

Fremtidens Historie (The History of the Future) by Christian Lollike German by Gabriele Haefs / Danish with German supertitles From Copenhagen, Denmark / Det Kongelige Teater

In Fremtidens Historie (The History of the Future), Christian Lollike investigates a world that has grown steadily more complex since 1989. Five actors create all the characters and situations in the play, inventing, for example, the figure of a female taxidriver as embodying the average citizen, and working with a montage of theoretical critiques, newspaper commentaries, philosophical discourses, advertising slogans and film quotes. More...

Omflickorkundedöda (Ifgirlscouldkill) by Åsa Lindholm German by Jana Hallberg / Swedish with German supertitles From Linköping, Sweden / Östgötateatern

Once upon a time, three girls, who called themselves "white, yellow and black" lived in a numbed nanny state full of safety junkies. But one early summer morning, their idyllic Swedish childhood suddenly came to an end. Today, they are grown up and are surprised about the present. In this country, major historical upheavals such as the fall of the Berlin Wall are only followed from a distance. More...

Zidul (The Wall) by Teodora Herghelegiu German by Victor Scoradet / Rumanian with German supertitles From Ploieşti, Rumania / Teatrul Toma Caragiu

Zidul (The Wall) is a triptych including absurd everyday dialogue, a failed protest action by a theatre ensemble, and the process of getting in tune to sing a Rumanian folk song. In her play, Teodora Herghelegiu describes Rumanian society as deeply divided – a place where the scars from the dictatorship are still open and indifference suffocates social ideas. At the same time, the play explores the situation of contemporary Rumanian theatre. More...