Spring in Europe – Beyond the Theatertreffen

Featured Image:

Die Physiker, directed by Bastien Kraft. Photo Credit: Eike Walkenhorst

As the Berliner Theatertreffen takes place in May of each year, there are numerous quality productions taking place at the many theatre companies in Germany’s capital city. It is also very easy to visit nearby countries by rail or plane and take in some of the productions that Europe has to offer. Spring is the time when many companies are finishing their year-long repertory seasons so many productions are seeing their final showings, while others are just opening to prepare for the busy fall season.  This article will consider productions in Germany outside of the Theatertreffen as well as shows in Luxembourg and Denmark.  Additionally, two university training programs will be examined and a semester final project reviewed. 

The usually rich performance schedule at Deutsches Theater Berlin included a premiere during May of Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s The Physicists, directed by Bastien Kraft.  A graduate of the Applied Theatre Studies program in Giessen, Kraft is well known throughout Europe for his works at Vienna’s Burgtheater as well as Schauspielhaus Zurich.  Loosely labeled a “criminal comedy,” The Physicists is set in a psychiatric hospital as Johann Möbius (played by Anja Schneider) has discovered a formula for a bomb that could destroy all of humanity.   In order to make certain the formula does not get into the wrong hands, Möbius retreats to the sanitarium where he meets a pair of delusional individuals (Carmen Steinert and Mareike Beykirch) who believe that they are Sir Issac Newton and Albert Einstein.  Guilty of the murders, the perpetrators are protected by the hospital staff who believe that their sickness renders them guiltless.  The gender bending cast – all male roles were played by women and vice versa for the female roles - also included Ulrich Matthes as Fraulien Doktor Mathilde De Von Zahnd, the sinister figure in charge of the hospital.  Cold and calculating, Matthes delivery and reactions provided many very funny scenes and the reckless, highly eccentric nature of Dürrenmatt’s script, written as a commentary on the Cold War, remains relevant in the 21^st Century with the rise of AI and the concept of “knowledge is power” as related to world control and domination.

Visually the most striking feature of The Physicists was its use of the combined elements of shadow figures and video, created something of a film noir landscape for the first half of the production.  Initially the large shadow figures were created in traditional shadow puppet style, with onstage practical instruments capturing 3-D human figures.  However, this process was enhanced using video as multiple prerecorded versions of the shadow figures were projected onto the large white back wall.  In the second act, designer Peter Baur creates a microscopic world that shrinks the hospital into a cramped tiny room where the characters are barely able to stand up straight, much less move.  Two large muscular nurses (Caner Sunar and Alexej Lochmann) emerge as comedic replacements for the murdered females and the breakneck style of the comedy plays as a crime drama where everything is successfully covered up.  Known for other “drag” versions of classics, such as The Visit and Pygmalion, at Deutsches Theater, director Kraft has a strong ability to reimagine classics with contemporary camp and humor.

The Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz maintained a solid production schedule during May 2026, featuring works by Milo Rau, Robert LePage, Falk Richter and several plays directed by Artistic Leader, Tomas Ostermeier.  Moliere’s Die Geizige (The Miser) featured long time Schaubühne actor Lars Eidinger in the leading role as Harpagon, the owner of an automobile dealership.  With his two children in his employ, Harpagon attempts to pawn his daughter off to one of he auto salesmen, (Valere – played by Pablo Moreno), while attempting to seduce Marianne (Mano Thiravong) and take her away from his son Cleante (Damir Avdic) all within the confines of the dealership office.  Harpagon attempts to hide his riches in the bag from an Uber Eats McDonalds order which is found and stolen by the wily servant/salesman La Fleche (Robert Beyer) but later recovered by Harpagon.  Zany action takes place throughout, sliding off of showroom vehicles, father and son smoke weed together and the old man attempts to seduce Marianne throughout.  Designed by Magda Willi, the massive set included two sets of stairs, a showroom vehicle (complete with a car alarm that kept getting set off) and multiple office spaces enclosed by glass windows.  Several of the characters seemed to be reminiscent of historical figures as Harpagon simulated Groucho Marx and Anselme (Axel Wandtke) was spot on as Andy Warhol.  The ending was very curious as there really was no resolution but instead something of a dialogue with the audience, asking questions about how the play might be resolved.  A strobe-light dance scene concluded the work.

One of Germany’s most prolific acting schools – the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst “Ernst Busch” presented one of several final year end performances for a public audience on May 12, 2026.  The select group of students, in the third year of their training at the Hochschule, presented a work entitled Vorspiel, a devised work guided by their semester guest artist teacher bob smith.  For the project, the students had been required to walk the streets of Berlin for a prescribed 24-hour period.  During that time, they would observe society, take notes on the type of people, animals, events and other elements of everyday life in the city.  The result was a devised work that included monologues, songs, movement sequences, simulated intimacy and violence and involved musical instruments, a bicycle and an incredibly smart use of one of the three performance spaces available on the new campus.  The work was loosely based on the concepts of both Brechtian gestus but also Anne Bogart’s theories in viewpoints.  Speaking with the students, they felt this technique was very fresh and original, and helped them to connect with the real world that they would be asked to portray in their careers as actors. 

The Ernst Busch Schule has experienced something of a renaissance since it’s relocation to the center of (former) East Berlin and the new Zinnowitzestrasse Locatlon.  The new campus has been a great change from the former Schoneweide Campus that was geographically distanced from the center of Berlin’s theatre scene.  Now that the school is centrally located among Berlin’s most respected theatre companies,

The opportunity to visit the University of Luxembourg and their graduate program in Theatre came as a real gift.  The program is co-sponsored by the University of Luxembourg and the University of Trier in Germany and offers M.A./PhD degrees in Dramaturgy.  The campus of the University of Luxembourg reveals one architectural marvel after another and the program in Theater, technically a Master of Theaterwissenschaft und Inkulturalität (Theatre Science in Interculturality)  has been able to place graduates at major cultural institutions throughout Western Europe, specifically in Germany, France, Belgium and Luxembourg.  Students from the program have gained employment at the Grande Theatre de la Ville du Luxembourg, the National Theatre of Luxembourg, Saarlandisches Staatstheater of Saarbrucken and the Theatre de Liege in Belgium.  While most of the 30 or so matriculated students in the program opt only for the Master’s Degree, a small percentage stay for an extra two years or so to complete the requirements of a Doctor of Philosophy.  Generous financial aid resources in Luxembourg ensure that students do not leave the institution with a great deal of debt, if any.  Modeled on the Applied Theatre program at Justus Leibig Universitat in Giessen, Germany, the Luxembourg program seeks to train students equally in the areas of theory and practice and looks to produced theatre artists with the ability to work in many areas of the industry.  Professor Dr. Natalie Bloch, a major professor in the program informed me that several students had also received contracts as directors, stage managers, actors and other areas related to the performing arts. 

The Luxembourg Ministry of Culture’s 2026 budget was about 42.8 million euro and the Theatre National du Luxembourg received an operating grant of 3.4 million euro plus additional funding to be used for capital development.  There are at least four other national theatres that receive state funding in addition to monies that fund festivals, cultural associations, independent artists and performing arts professionals as well as regional and municipal theatres and other public cultural institutions.  Considering their relatively small population, Luxembourg theatre is among the highest funded in Europe on a per capita basis.   The National Theatre of Luxembourg, which includes the Grand Theatre  as well as the Theatre des Capucins presents an impressive yearly schedule to rival the best in Europe.  This past season featured Pessoa, one of Robert Wilson’s final works as well as Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake, Christoph Marthaler’s The Summit, William Kentridge’s The Great Yes, The Great No but had just one original work on schedule during my visit there.  Written and directed by Larisa Faber, The Land We Shared, was a series of stories told about the author’s life in Romania.  Performed by a cast of 3, the play was literally a series of (mainly) monologues about the memories of Faber’s grandmother and her memories of family life just after the fall of the Soviet Union.  The challenges of living under communism were explored in the play, that also featured a small two-person musical combo (drums and stand-up bass guitar) played by cast member Ovidiu Mihaita and sound designer/composer Alexei Turcan.  Kristen Winters plays the role of Little L, or Larisa as a child, whose memories of life in Romania were both fond but at times a little painful.  Thankfully the work was presented in English, but the heavy reliance on long, often painful stories with little technical support made the production a little tedious at times.  Still the sold out audience showed great appreciation at the end and the rather large contingent of Romanian citizens in Luxembourg City generated a great deal of interest from the local population. 

The National Theatre of Denmark made the bold choice to stage Frederico Garcia-Lorca’s Yerma during its Spring season at the Skuespilhuset, literally one of the most beautiful European theatre buildings I have ever seen.  Located in the famous area of Nyhavn, the space was constructed in 2007 by Danish architects Lundgaard and Tranberg to include a mixture of steel, wood, brass, copper and custom-made black slate bricks.  The larger theatre, Den Store Scene, is a stunning work of theatre architecture, and the use of the dark brick material is helpful both in the areas of lighting as well as sound.  The experience one receives in the theatre itself is like none other and is a model of European architectural innovation. 

As presented in a contemporary adaptation by Australian playwright Simon Stone, Yerma was directed by Thomas Bendixen, with scenography by Jonas Fly, Balder NØrskav and Jonas Vest.  The collaborative nature of the production team was noticeable, and the nature of the production was particularly cohesive from a stylistic standpoint.  While it is most likely Lorca’s least well known and underproduced work, Yerma offers many possibilities as a viable work of theatre.  Stone’s contemporary adaptation transported the work into a contemporary urban setting. Contemporary music and lighting embued the work with a style similar to one of many contemporary Netflix series television works. 

The staging and physical use of the stage environment deserve consideration.  The bulk of the play was staged on a center stage ramp – about 4 – 6 feet deep and elevated about 4 feet.  The platformed approach forced the actors to perform in a very linear 2-D manner as upstage/downstage movements were made nearly impossible.  Acting choices were also made more difficult, and even the seasoned Danish National Theatre actors were caught making poor choices of “gesturing” their way through scenes where they existed with their scene partners in a side-by-side relationship.  Near the play’s end this formalized character relationship was changed as the platform rotated 90 degrees, and a mammoth lighting wall came into play.  At that point actors moved into 3-D relationships with one another and the nature of the staging changed greatly.  The use of text and images were useful when the stage setup was strictly 2-D but the abstract nature of the lighting wall provided a successful contrast.  Additionally, the highly choreographed and expressionistic moments that took place between the scenes were thrilling and did much to establish the gradual breakdown of Yerma and her relationships with both her fiancé Jon (Mikkel Arndt) and her close friend Maria (Nanna Skaarup Voss). 

Yerma’s gradual breakdown leads her to commit a heinous act in the end.  In a stark change from the original text, Stone’s dramaturgy borrows from Seneca’s Oedipus and Yerma drives a long knife into her barren womb, ending her miserable existence. 

As previously noted, these productions represent a small sample of what one might be able to witness as tertiary events in the midst of a major festival like the Theatertreffen.  There are always gaps in the schedule that allow for outside shows and events to be seen and sites of theatre training and education to be visited.  Sadly, this year marks the closing of the Humboldt Universitaet gastehaus, which, for the past 20 years, has made it possible for 2-3 week stays in Berlin at a fraction of what it might cost otherwise.