The Irish performers are enjoying the generosity of the German audience. Three standard curtain calls at the end of a rehearsed reading comes as a welcome surprise. Günther has put together a variety of quality work made possible by exposing himself to a great deal of Irish theatre over the years, so to perform in or attend this festival has meaning.

To be in the building and see Irish theatre technicians going about the business of making it possible, is at first completely normal. The same guys work in theatres in Dublin, where I also worked when I lived there. They will be working there again next week. Theatres don’t ever feel location specific so when passing a familiar techie,  in English Theatre Berlin the other day, both he and I nodded like everything is how it should be. It took a beat to realise our greeting should be a little more emphatic, we’re in Berlin after all, in the Irish Theatre Festival, which, by the way, is running out. On Saturday night the last page will be turned and until then there is much to experience. If it sounds like I’m flogging it thats because I am. It’s not going to last forever and if you do decide to catch what you can, book. Really. It has seen many fuller than full houses already.

Günther hand picked four contemporary Irish plays to be presented as rehearsed readings. Something has happened. Many theatre practitioners living in Berlin  have been gathered and poured into rehearsal spaces to tell these stories. New connections have been made. Ones that I don’t doubt will yield more storytelling, some of which wouldn’t have existed otherwise.

While the impact of the work Günther, Daniel, their team and Culture Ireland might extend passed this festival, on Saturday the little bit of Ireland that has risen up in the last week will disperse into the WG’s of Berlin and the shores of Ireland and there will be no grasping it then.

I feel it’s not too soon to say that we’re all the better for it. You can be too.