THEATERFORMEN HANOVER 2009
The international festival Theaterformen is celebrating its 10th edition with 15 productions from around the globe. This diversity once again makes the festival a celebration of everything theatre can do and be. Performances will take place at the Schauspielhaus, on the Ballhof stages and in the Theater am Aegi, but also at the Central Station, the New City Hall and in the Georgengarten. The city of Hanover itself becomes a stage for actors, specialists, youths, family researchers, musicians and fashion lovers. In the city we are all Urban Actors – a phenomenon we are exploring with unusual projects like our T-Shirt Subscription and a conference on Urban Space and Theatre Production. Stagings from Argentina, Belgium, the DR Congo, England, France, Germany, Morocco, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain and Switzerland have been invited. This year the festival will present 11 German premieres and one world premiere. In the evenings we’ll be celebrating in the Festival Centre courtyard. There will be parties and free concerts, a wild goodbye party with the team from the Schauspielhaus to bid farewell to Artistic Director Wilfried Schulz, and a musical celebration to mark the annual Fête de la Musique. Close to 300 artists will travel to Hanover and take part in over 50 performances – all this just to infect you with festival fever! We’ve already caught it! This year’s invited artists and plays thrilled, moved and touched us; they captured our hearts and challenged our minds. We hope they’ll have the same effect on you and look forward to seeing you from June 10th to 21st!
Anja Dirks and the Theaterformen team
FESTIVAL THEATERFORMEN SINCE 1990
The name says it all: Since 1990 the Theaterformen festival has been presenting a variety of contemporary theatre productions in Braunschweig and Hanover: everything from huge spectacles to intimate chamber plays, classical dramas, documentary theatre, monodramas and multimedia installations – even forms and formats which don’t have names yet. Over the years the festival has continually reinvented, reoriented and repositioned itself. The programmes have highlighted productions from all continents, as well as innovative theatre makers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. More than half of the 170 productions presented at the festival – up until and including 2009 – have been premieres: world premieres, German-language debuts, German premieres or European premieres. Many projects have been commissioned specially for Theaterformen, or been made possible through co-productions.
Theaterformen 1990 (Braunschweig)
Bernd Kauffmann launched the festival in Braunschweig in November of 1990. Funding came from a state-sponsored program for the East-West German border regions. The thematic focus of the first Theaterformen festival was William Shakespeare. Two of the Bard’s works, in particular, were juxtaposed: The Tempest, a co-production with C.I.C.T (Paris), directed by Peter Brook; and Titus Andronicus, staged by Peter Stein. Smaller productions and a supporting programme of films, videos and performances rounded out the first edition of the festival.
Artistic Directors: Bernd Kauffmann & Peter Ries
General Director: Mario Krüger (until 1992)
Theaterformen 1992 (Braunschweig / Wolfenbüttel)
The focus of the second Theaterformen festival, part of which took place in neighbouring Wolfenbüttel, was Eastern Europe. Two specially commissioned productions played a central role: the St. Petersburg-based Maly Drama Theatre’s dramatisation of Dostoyevsky’s The Possessed, directed by Lev Dodin; and Nathans Tod (Nathan’s Death), written and directed by George Tabori, as a co-production with the Bavarian State Theatre. In addition, Polish director Andrzej Wajda staged Stanislaw Wyspianski’s The Wedding, Romania’s Silviu Purcarete directed Ubu Rex with Scenes from Macbeth, and Swiss “historical detective” and storyteller Hans Peter Litscher presented Lessing's Blessings.
Artistic Directors: Bernd Kauffmann & Peter Ries
Theaterformen 1995 (Braunschweig, Wolfenbüttel, Hanover)
The Staatstheater Braunschweig’s fire curtain came crashing down, necessitating a last-minute change of venue. Wolfenbüttel then had the honour of being the only city in Germany to host The Seven Streams of the River Ota, one of Canadian theatrical wizard Robert Lepage’s most spectacular productions. Mama, a musical from Soweto, written and directed by Mbongeni Ngema of Durban’s Playhouse Company, made its European debut at a factory site in Braunschweig. Hanover’s Hanomag-Halle was home to another visually stunning production: Dante’s Divine Comedy, staged by Croatian director Tomaz Pandur. In addition, Anatoli Vassiliev presented Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin with a young ensemble from Moscow.
Artistic Director: Thomas Petz
General Director: Jürgen Flügge
Theaterformen 1998 (Braunschweig / Hanover)
The festival focused on contemporary German directors, with Elmar Goerden (Das Meer war groß), Martin Kusej (King Arthur), Karin Beier (The Tempest) and Heiner Goebbels directing the Ensemble Modern (Eislermaterial, Schwarz auf Weiß). The incredible triumph that off-beat rock musical Shockheaded Peter, by Britons Julian Crouch, Phelim McDermott and musicians Tiger Lilies, enjoyed on the continent started with the European premiere in Hanover. Other productions showed works by Jan Fabre (Belgium), Eimuntas Nekrosius (Lithuania), Johan Simons (the Netherlands) and Forced Entertainment (Great Britain).
Artistic Director: Marie Zimmermann
Schauspiel Hannover Director: Ulrich Khuon (until 2000)
Braunschweig Staatstheater Director: Wolfgang Gropper (until 2010)
Theaterformen 2000 (Braunschweig / Hanover)
With a focus on theatre of figures and of objects, the fifth festival showcased productions from Australia, Canada, Russia, Israel, and Argentina. The smallest show, It’s Your Film, was live cinema; four actors from British theatre company Stan's Café performed in a small booth for one viewer. Run by director, filmmaker and artist William Kentridge, the Handspring Puppet Company came from South Africa to present the Chimp Project. Pina Bausch (Kontakthof) and Belgian choreographer Alain Platel (Allemaal Indiaan) provided insights into contemporary dance theatre. Further highlights included Hamlet, directed by Peter Zadek (with Angela Winkler as Hamlet), and Jean Genet’s The Maids, staged and performed by Ignaz Kircher and Gert Voss.
Artistic Director: Marie Zimmermann
Theaterformen 2002 (Braunschweig / Hanover)
The international program featured Gerardjan Rijnders & Tom Lanoye from the Netherlands (Mamma Medea), Richard Maxwell from the US and groups from Croatia and Argentina, with Joachim Schlömer (La Guerra d’Amore, dance theatre), Christoph Marthaler and René Pollesch representing the German-speaking countries. Works inspired by the fine arts included pieces by David Claerbout and Yang Zhenzhong, and Fred Keleman adapted Ray Bradbury’s classic novel Fahrenheit 451 for the stage. In their project Sonde Hannover, newly-founded formation Rimini Protokoll used binoculars and surveillance cameras to observe the city from above.
Artistic Director: Veronica Kaup-Hasler
Schauspiel Hannover Director: Wilfried Schulz (until 2009)
Theaterformen 2004 (Braunschweig / Hanover)
This year's festival addressed the socio-political issues of fundamentalism and democracy. Lebanese journalist and theatre maker Rabih Mroué contributed two productions (Biokhraphia and Looking for a Missing Employee), alongside Polish director Krysztof Warlikowski (Macbeth) and the English-German performance group Gob Squad (Room Service). German director Frank Castorf made his Theaterformen debut in 2004. The festival also offered a broad dialogue forum, with presentations and discussions featuring thinkers like Zygmunt Bauman, Slavoj Žižek and Antonio Negri.
Artistic director: Veronica Kaup-Hasler
Theaterformen 2007 (Hanover)
Starting in 2007, Braunschweig and Hanover began hosting the festival in turns. This year the programme featured unusual formats, including a theatre circus (Cirque désaccordé from France) and a Brazilian youth project (Afro Reggae). The Australian Back to Back Theatre performed their piece Small Metal Objects on Hanover’s famous Kröpcke square, mixing with the public in the pedestrian zone. Theaterformen 2007 hosted the world premiere of Simon Stephens’ Pornography, a co-production with Schauspielhannover and the Schauspielhaus Hamburg, which was later invited to Berlin’s Theatertreffen festival.
Artistic Director: Stefan Schmidtke
For further information about Theaterformen 2007, please go to the archive.
Theaterformen 2008 (Braunschweig)
For the chorus in the ancient Greek tragedy Die Perser, director Claudia Bosse mobilised over 300 citizens, who were captured in portrait photos by Ukrainian artist Boris Mikhailov. The French Théâtre Dromesko brought a culinary offering with the soup kitchen La Baraque, featuring songs and marionettes; and then there was the walk-in cake served up by Canadian theatre company Théâtre des Confettis. For six hours, Ivo van Hove's actors captivated spectators with Roman Tragedies, a compilation of three Shakespearean dramas. German director Armin Petras also made his festival debut with Dorota Masłowska’s Two Poor, Polish-speaking Romanians.
Artistic Director: Stefan Schmidtke
For further information about Theaterformen 2008, please go to the archive.