During World War II over 100 German theatres were
destroyed. However, by the 1960s, after an intense rebuilding
program, Germany had one of the best networks of subsidised
theatres in the world - on both sides of the Berlin Wall. In
West Germany, the Schaubühne in West Berlin would become the jewel
in the crown and central to the development of contemporary German
theatre during the second half of the 20th century - as it still is
today.
Founded in 1962 as a private theatre by students from the Free
University of Berlin, renowned director Peter Stein was selected by
the government to take over the Schaubühne in 1970, which he ran as
a collective. During his 15-year artistic directorship, Stein
established one of the finest acting ensembles in the world and
directed a string of hugely influential productions including
Ibsen's Peer Gynt(1971), Gorky's
Summerfolk (1974) and Chekhov's Three
Sisters(1984) as well as nurturing new writing.
Stein's innovative reinterpretations of the classics - along with
the work of other leading German theatre directors like Peter Zadek
and Claus Peymann - played a key role in establishing the dominance
of avant-garde, director-led theatre for which Germany became
famous.
Pina Bausch's visionary work at her Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina
Bausch between 1972 and 2009, where she combined dance and theatre,
also had a profound influence on German and international
theatre.
In East Germany, the most influential company was the Berliner
Ensemble formed in 1949 by Bertolt Brecht and his wife Helen
Weigel. Having gone into exile during the Hitler years, Brecht's
work was little performed in Germany until his return in 1947. The
Berliner Ensemble devoted itself primarily to Brecht's plays. From
there, they quickly found their way into the repertoires of most
German companies and Brecht's theories regarding 'epic theatre' and
his concept of 'alienation' were soon known around the world.
Brecht died in 1956 but his legacy loomed large and his plays
continued to grow in popularity in Germany into the 1970s.
Much postwar German drama dealt with questions of guilt, power and
moral responsibility.
The 1960s saw the development of 'documentary theatre' or 'theatre
of fact', a prime example beingThe Investigationin 1965 by Peter
Weiss (author of Marat/Sade), which was set in a courtroom
and used dialogue from the official hearings into the concentration
camp at Auschwitz.
By the mid-1960s, the preoccupation with guilt was waning but
German playwrights were still concerned with the failings of
contemporary society and a realistic form of drama rooted in
everyday life began to emerge. Leading this tradition was Marxist
writer Franz Xaver Kroetz whose realistic, politically motivated
dramas used the colloquial speech patterns of his native Bavaria.
By the 1980s, Kroetz was the most popular of all contemporary
German playwrights.
Others who were highly critical of contemporary life yet
apolitical in their outlook included Austrian writer Thomas
Bernhard. Meanwhile, Austrian writer Peter Handke, believing that
realism had lost its currency, began exploring alternative forms
with plays like Offending the Audience(1966) in which
four unnamed people make a series of statements about clichés
regarding the theatre.
In East Germany, the leading playwright was Heiner Müller who
typically chose historical subjects, often from Germany's past, to
comment on the present. He also engaged with classical texts. His
plays included Philoctetes(1968),
Hamletmachine (1977) and Anatomy Titus Fall of
Rome A Shakespeare Commentary (1985). Müller, who had
spent time with Brecht at the Berliner Ensemble, initially used a
social realist style but then began to experiment with form, mixing
poetry with politics in plays that were often brutal and
tragic.
Between 1962 and 1973 Müller's plays were banned in East Germany
though widely produced and admired in the West. During the 1980s
his works began to be performed in East Germany and by the 1990s,
Müller (who died in 1995) was the most influential and frequently
performed playwright in Germany - by then reunified after the fall
of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
In 1996, a young director called Thomas Ostermeier came to
prominence when he founded the Baracke (the Shack), a small cult
theatre under the auspices of Berlin's Deutsches Theater. Two years
later, he was joined by a young playwright, Marius von Mayenburg.
In 1999, Ostermeier was invited to take over the Schaubühne where
he has established himself as one of Germany's most distinguished
directors. He took von Mayenburg with him to the Schaubühne as
playwright-in-residence. There, along with other writers like David
Gieselmann, von Mayenburg has spearheaded a new generation of
German playwrighting.
Perplex, 31 Mar - 3 May 2014, Wharf 1 Theatre
Thanks to the NIDA library.
Key reference material: History of the Theatreby Oscar
G. Brocket; New German Dramatistsby Denis Calandra;
New York Timesarticle 'On German Stages, a Society
Explores Itself', March 1989.