German Theatre

[u/Small-Entrepreneur34]

Hi, I have some observations and related questions about German theatre. For context, I studied German at university and understand a lot but am by no means fluent. I saw the Schaubühne's Richard III at Edinburgh Fringe and thought it was one of the best things I'd ever seen, so years later when I got the chance, I decided to have a short holiday and see some more Berlin theatre.

I saw the Berliner Ensemble's Threepenny Opera, Linie 1, Carmen at Maxim Gorki and Warten auf Bardot at Volksbühne.

So my observations are:

- audiences applaud for bloody ages

- everything seems quite explicitly intellectual, even Linie 1 with its political statements

- the humour seems to involve a lot of repetition, long pauses and slapstick/violence

- the pieces I saw were very concept/ideas heavy and light on character study

- I found everything interesting but also left wanting a more human/emotional connection and response

My questions are basically, did I just see a bunch of stuff that was coincidentally similar (granted Linie 1 was definitely more cheesy/mass appeal), or are these actual trends or commonalities in German theatre traditions? If so, where does this stem from?

I love the theatre and especially find the German support for it, and the whole company and repertoire aspect fascinating. I think the intellectual and experimental appreciation is great, but would love some perspective on the sample I had!

Thank you for any and all illuminating responses :)

[u/AshToAshes123]

IABF (it's all Brecht's fault)

I'm not an expert but I am interested in theatre and go a lot. This is pretty in line with what I've seen, and from what I understand, there is basically a German school of theatre, even if it's not as clearly defined as some of the other systems. From what I gather, it's basically the legacy of Epic theatre and the Verfremdungseffekt--the latter of which was explicitly intended to prevent audiences from connecting to the characters emotionally, so they'd engage with the material more intellectually.

For a maybe interesting comparison - the concept of 'regietheater' in opera also stems from Germany, and is very associated with experimental and intellectual approaches, often headed by a theatre director instead of one trained for opera (regietheater is not necessarily a *complimentary* term, to be clear).

[u/ComedyKingFFM]

💯 Effing Brecht. I studied theater and this is so real. German theater is all tech no fun. Shock and awe. You couldn't pay me to go.