Blog Archive

The Story of a Tiger

Nanzikambe Arts (Malawi)

Inspired by the 2011 Malawi protests against the government which resulted in 20 deaths and nearly 100 injuries, leading Malawi theater company Nanzikambe Arts responded with an adaptation of Dario Fo‘s 1978 play La storia della tigre.

Geoffrey Mbene Tiger - Photo by Philipp Hamedl Web

Originally inspired by Fo‘s 1975 trip to China, this dramatic monologue tells the story of a revolutionary Chinese solider wounded during Mao‘s Long March and left to die by his comrades. Nursed back to health by a mother tiger, he returns to civilization determined to cure its ills.

In Thokozani Kapiri‘s international adaptation intended for both African and European audiences, Geoffrey Mbene provides a tour-de-force performance relying heavily on pantomime and physical theater.

This production of The Story of a Tiger, commissioned by Theater Konstanz as part of its three-year partnership with Nanzikambe Arts – Crossing Borders, von See zu See – received 10 different presentations in Germany in 2012. It was also performed at Mwezi Wawala International Arts Festival, Blantyre Arts Festival and Malawi Cultural Arts Festival, in Austria and in Ireland in 2013.

Photo by Philipp Hamedl

ISAAC’S EYE

by Lucas Hnath

Sex, drugs & science in the 17th century

Three additional performances of the best science comedy out there!

Watch the video trailer HERE

Isaac-Logan2 Isaac Newton wants to become a member of the Royal Society. Robert Hooke wants to know what Newton knows. Catherine wants to have a family. The guy with the plague wants to stay alive. They conduct a risky experiment.

Afterwards, Newton doesn’t know any more than before but Hooke gets his sex diary back, Catherine’s skepticism is stronger than ever and the guy with the plague is dead.

Science moves in mysterious ways.

Isaac’s Eye mixes the facts of Isaac Newton’s life with an equal dose of fiction to explore what great people are willing to sacrifice to become great people.

It puts the history of science onstage, juxtaposing historical characters and facts with our 21st century based projection of them.

“I tend to write plays about people who are trying to do something that is impossible or nearly impossible. I’m interested in people who are trying to accomplish things that very few people will ever accomplish. … Huge ambition brings with it aspects of wonder, high stakes, and danger. But even more interesting than that, when you combine enormous ambitions with the small conflicts we experience everyday, the ordinary becomes illuminated. There’s a Virginia Woolf quote that I like very much: The paraphernalia of reality have at certain moments to become the veil through which we see infinity. We are neither roused nor puzzled; we do not have to ask ourselves, What does this mean? We feel simply that the thing we are looking at is lit up, and its depths revealed. Conflating the mythic with the miniscule has become my strategy for piercing Woolf’s veil.” Lucas Hnath

Lucas Hnath is one of the most promising voices in contemporary US theater. His other plays include Death Tax, NightNight, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney , Red Speedo and The Christians. A resident playwright at New Dramatists since 2011, Lucas Hnath has enjoyed playwriting residencies with The Royal Court Theatre, London and 24Seven Lab, New York. He is a two-time winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant for his feature-length screenplays, The Painting, the Machine and the Apple and Still Life. He received both his BFA and MFA from NYU’s Department of Dramatic Writing and is a lecturer in NYU’s Expository Writing Program.

ETB_SuT_Logo_onWhite_small_RGB Isaac’s Eye is part five of Science&Theatre, a collaboration of English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center with Prof. Dr. Regine Hengge (Institute for Biology/Microbiology at the Humboldt University Berlin) and her team of young scientists.

Photo Lucas Hnath: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times | Production photo: Casey Tower

NippleJesus

by Nick Hornby

Art? Enjoy. Destroy.

“Nothing much happened at first .. After about an hour, I got my first nutter.”

NippJay1 He doesn´t know a thing about art. But being a former bouncer, Dave gets hired to guard a controversial piece of art. “Jesus on the Cross” is ten feet high by six feet wide and was created in a, well, let’s say, different sort of way. There are people out there who won´t like it, and there are many ways of looking at it. While Dave develops his own relation to art and this particular piece, he begins defending it against his wife, the media and a whole bunch of religious fanatics. Then the shit hits the fan. In the end, his troubles come from an unexpected side.

“It’s a great play – Jesse does a fantastic job – he’s so gloriously angry at times – and it’s a riveting play, entertaining, fast-paced, in fact it’s over so quickly that you’re almost disappointed it’s finished.” Jacinta Nandi / TAZ

Nick Hornby´s NippleJesus is a warm and funny examination of our personal perspectives on modern art and the irreverent ways of the contemporary art world . What do we make of art and why? And who gets to decide what is art and what is not? How manipulative is the art world? Nick Hornby has a few interesting suggestions.

Jesse Inman is originally from Birmingham / UK and moved to Germany in 2003. Since then he has worked as a freelance actor and has been involved in various productions at English Theatre Berlin, the most recent of which was Playing Sandwiches, a part of Alan Bennett´s Talking Heads series. Since 2006 he has been working with the Swiss theater company FAR A DAY CAGE, has been an ensemble actor at Theater Basel since 2012. In the summer of 2015 will start acting at Schauspielhaus Wien. Along side theater work he has also been involved in various films such as Julie Delpy’s Countess and Lars von Triers Nymphomaniac.

Nick Hornby is an English writer born in 1957 in Surrey. He studied English at Jesus College, Cambridge. His first book, Fever Pitch (1992), was a huge success, followed by High Fidelity (1995) which was made into a film starring John Cusack and a Broadway musical. About a Boy, also adapted into a film starring Hugh Grant, came out in 1998. Hornby´s other novels are How to be Good (2001), A Long Way Down (2005), Slam (2007), Juliet, Naked (2009) and Funny Girl (2014). His short story collection includes Faith (1998), Not a Star (2000) and Otherwise Pandemonium (2005). He has written numerous essays mostly on music and literature. Hornby received, amongst numerous other awards and prizes, an Oscar nomination for his screenplay for Lone Scherfig´s film An Education (2009). He has been given the name “The maestro of the male confessional” for the brilliant portrayal of his male characters in his novels.

Pics: Jesse Inman as Dave: Casey Tower / Nick Hornby: Geraint Lewis

Featuring a post-performance discussion on Tuesday, July 14 in conjunction with Theater Scoutings Berlin!

Stripped

Stripped is the story of a relationship between a man and a woman in their early thirties. The play begins with both of them, in their respective bathrooms, getting ready for their first date; a blind date arranged through a newspaper dating page.

As they dress, they reflect on their fears, feelings and hopes about their imminent meeting. By the time they meet, we – the audience – know a lot about them which has built anticipation for what is to come. It clearly isn’t going to be an easy evening.

Torrents of Rapture

Something’s off with Reggie’s boyfriend. In a fit of protectiveness(?) he’s just locked him in the bathroom like Rapunzel. Miserable and betrayed, Reggie finds solace in his friends – the hairdryer, drill, radio and toilet paper – as well the life affirming classic Torrent of Rapture.

Wildly romantic, idealized and inaccurate it seems to mirror his life exactly until it becomes clear that having a movie for a therapist is not always a good idea. As his world crumbles around him, Reggie finds his inner superhero emerging victorious from the ruins of his shattered dreams.

Told through bad ballet and puppetry, this is Brief Encounter meets Saving Private Ryan via Monty Python style cinema, film music, animation and live song. Torrents of Rapture fuses these sumptuous elements together as it explores the social, civil and human rights themes celebrating the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women who have fought for LGBT equality over the past 150 years. The show leaves you overwhelmed, singing and shaking with …Torrents of Rapture.

Torrents of Rapture  was created by Dugald Ferguson  in co-production with Norwich Pride and Norwich Arts Centre. Supported by Arts Council England

BERLIN INTERNATIONAL YOUTH THEATRE: Into the Haystack

A dramatic investigation of surveillance in a suspiciously normal yet surreal society where the citizens have given up all rights to privacy. They are ultimately safe – but safe from what? The police seem superfluous, while the ominous Seeing-Men have complete control. This is a world that Kafka would recognize with a shudder.

“In the digital era, privacy must be a priority. Is it just me, or is secret blanket surveillance obscenely outrageous?” – Al Gore

“So what is to be done to restrain the champions, whom tend to trample upon the rest, whose eyes are fixed upon some ultimate golden future?” – Isaiah Berlin, philosopher and political theorist 1909-1997

Confirmation

Theatertreffen stückemarkt revisited

If you pinned me against a wall, I’d probably admit to being a liberal. Of course, pinning me against a wall is exactly what I’d expect from someone like you. A show about the gulfs we can’t talk across, and about the way we choose to see only the evidence that proves we’re right.

With an election looming and new voices appearing in mainstream UK politics, Chris Thorpe and The TEAM Artistic Director Rachel Chavkin examine the phenomenon of confirmation bias through an honorable dialogue, real and imagined, with political extremism. To find out how we believe what we believe and how we can end up so far apart.

Edinburgh Fringe First Award Winner – 2014

“Rachel Chavkin’s fast-moving, kinetic production offers us an absolutely compelling performance from a man who is fast becoming one of the most powerful performers in the UK” – The Scotsman

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Chris Thorpe | Writer and Performer

Chris is a writer and performer from Manchester. He is a founder member of Unlimited Theatre and also an artistic associate of Third Angel. He is making a cycle of solo pieces and continues to collaborate with companies like Slung Low, Forest Fringe, RashDash and Soup Collective, with whom he wrote and recorded the piece The Bomb On Mutannabbi Street Is Still Exploding, which has been permanently installed at the Imperial War Museum North. Chris’s plays have been produced worldwide and he has toured with Unlimited and Third Angel in Europe, Africa, Asia and the USA.

Recent projects include a trilogy of plays, Overdrama, House/Garden and Dead End for Portuguese company mala voadora, which continue to tour in Europe. He is also still touring in Third Angel’s show What I Heard About The World, recently to Poland, Brazil, Germany and Lebanon. He worked with poet Hannah Jane Walker in 2010 to make her solo show, This Is Just To Say. Hannah and Chris then worked together again to create The Oh Fuck Moment, which won a Fringe First at Edinburgh Fringe 2011. Their show, I Wish I Was Lonely, is still on the road. He also plays guitar in Lucy Ellinson’s political extreme noise project TORYCORE.

As a playwright, Chris recently worked with Hannah Jane Walker on a commission for The Unicorn Theatre in London, and revived his hit show, There Has Possibly Been An Incident, at the Stückemarkt in Berlin (following an invitation from playwright Simon Stephens). He also wrote Northern Stage’s Christmas Show, Dark Woods, Deep Snow in 2013. Chris is currently writing a new show for the Royal Court Theatre and a new project for the Unicorn Theatre as well as continuing work with Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre.

Rachel Chavkin | Director

Rachel is a Brooklyn-based director/dramaturg/writer, and the Artistic Director of collaborative ensemble the TEAM. Founded in 2004, the TEAM makes new work about the experience of living in America today, and aims to keep the brain, eyes, and heart of the audience constantly stimulated. Four time winners of the Fringe First, winner of the 2011 Herald Angel, the 2011 EIF Fringe Prize, and ranked Best of 2013 on three continents, the TEAM’s work includes Mission Drift, a new musical composed by Heather Christian that travels through 400 years of history in pursuit of the soul of American capitalism, and RoosevElvis, the story of a surreal road trip from the Badlands to Graceland. The TEAM has been presented at or received commissions from organizations all over New York (including the Public Theater, PS122, and the Bushwick Starr), nationally (including the Walker Art Center and the A.R.T.), internationally (including London’s National Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland, the Barbican Centre, the Almeida Theatre, the Traverse Theatre, international festivals in Perth and Hong Kong, and the Salzburg Festival’s Young Directors Program).

In addition to her work with the TEAM, Rachel collaborates regularly with writers and composers on new work. Recent projects include Dave Malloy’s immersively staged electro-pop opera Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Kazino – commercial transfer; World Premiere: Ars Nova – New York Times, Time Out New York and New York Post Critics’ Picks, and Top Ten); storyteller James Monaco and composer Jerome Ellis’ collaboration Aaron/Marie; Meg Miroshnik’s The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls (Yale Rep); Rick Burkhardt,

Alec Duffy and Dave Malloy’s Three Pianos (A.R.T., NYTW – Dec ’10/Jan ’11, Ontological Incubator Series – Feb/March ’10, 2010 Obie Award); and repeat collaborations with playwright/performer/activist Taylor Mac including his extravaganza The Lily’s Revenge (World Premiere, Act II) (HERE Arts Center, 2010 Obie Award) and Peace, co-written by Mac and Chavkin (Workshop, HERE Arts Center, 2007).

Rachel is a two-time Obie Winner, and was nominated as Best Director for both the Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Awards for her work on Great Comet. Upcoming work includes multiple projects with Dave Malloy, adapting folk singer Anaïs Mitchell’s album Hadestown, a theatrical concert adaption of Mac Wellman’s intergalactic Ohio-based novel Annie Salem in collaboration with composer Heather Christian, and the TEAM’s multigenerational cover band project, Primer for a Failed Superpower.

Schwarz gemacht

our world premiere production returns for six additional performances!

What is “identity”? What makes us who we are? Who has the right to define us?

Schwarz gemacht_Klaus(ErnestAllanHausmann)(c)Photo by DanielGentelev Set in 1938 Berlin and drawing heavily upon history, the play imagines a story that examines universal questions of self and citizenship primarily through the eyes of a patriotic Afrodeutscher (Afro-German) actor. Proud to serve his country, he appears in propaganda films calling for the return of Germany’s former African colonies. An encounter with an African-American musician and activist leads to hard questions about the treatment of people of color both in Germany and in the United States of America.

Schwarz gemacht is the first project to move completely through English Theatre Berlin | International Performing Arts Center’s new work development series, THE LAB, to receive a full production. It was part of the Colorblind? series of staged readings examining racial identity on stage in 2012 and a two-week workshop was held in December 2013.

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The production of Schwarz gemacht features an exhibition in our foyer exploring the historical themes of the play.

Post-performance discussions with the artistic team and cast will be offered on Friday, April 17 and Friday, April 24. The event on April 17 is offered in conjunction with Theaterscoutings Berlin.

The post-performance discussion on Friday, April 24 features playwright Alexander Thomas and will be moderated by Sharon Dodua Otoo, independent writer and editor of the Witnessed Series at Edition Assemblage, an English-languages series dedicated to the work of Black authors who have lived in Germany.

Alexander Thomas was born and grew up in Albany, New York. He studied acting in New York City at the Stella Adler Studio (among others). His autobiographical solo show Throw Pitchfork ran off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop as well as the Kitchen Theatre Company in Ithaca, New York. Throw Pitchfork won a Special Honours Award and was the closing production at the 2004 Thespis International Monodrama Festival in Kiel, Germany. He is one of the contributing writers to the American Slavery Project; Unheard Voices, a monologue play that gives voice to some of the 400 unmarked graves of slaves discovered at the African Burial Grounds unearthed in Manhattan, New York in 1991. This project has been performed in venues throughout New York including the Museum of Natural History. Alexander Thomas has an international career as a stage actor. He was a cast member of the award-winning UK production of On the Waterfront by the esteemed director Steven Berkoff which ran in London’s West End as well the Edinburgh Festival, the Nottingham Playhouse and the Hong Kong Arts Festival.

Production photo: Daniel Gentelev

ISAAC’S EYE

by Lucas Hnath

Sex, drugs & science in the 17th century

Five additional performances of our successful production of the best science comedy out there!

Watch the video trailer HERE !!

Isaac´s eye_1 Isaac Newton wants to become a member of the Royal Society. Catherine wants to start a family.
Robert Hooke wants to know what Newton knows. The guy with the plague wants to stay alive. They conduct a risky experiment.

Afterwards, Newton doesn’t know any more than before but Hooke gets his sex diary back, Catherine’s skepticism is stronger than ever and the guy with the plague is dead.

Science moves in mysterious ways.

Isaac’s Eye mixes the facts of Isaac Newton’s life with an equal dose of fiction to explore what great people are willing to sacrifice to become great people.

It puts the history of science onstage, juxtaposing historical characters and facts with our 21st century based projection of them.

Featuring a post-performance discussion with Dr. Regine Hengge, director Günther Grosser and the cast on Friday, March 27 in conjunction with Theater Scoutings Berlin!

“I tend to write plays about people who are trying to do something that is impossible or nearly impossible. I’m interested in people who are trying to accomplish things that very few people will ever accomplish. … Huge ambition brings with it aspects of wonder, high stakes, and danger. But even more interesting than that, when you combine enormous ambitions with the small conflicts we experience everyday, the ordinary becomes illuminated. There’s a Virginia Woolf quote that I like very much: The paraphernalia of reality have at certain moments to become the veil through which we see infinity. We are neither roused nor puzzled; we do not have to ask ourselves, What does this mean? We feel simply that the thing we are looking at is lit up, and its depths revealed. Conflating the mythic with the miniscule has become my strategy for piercing Woolf’s veil.” Lucas Hnath

Lucas Hnath is one of the most promising voices in contemporary US theater. His other plays include Death Tax (Humana Fest/Steinberg Award), NightNight, A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay about the Death of Walt Disney (Soho Rep) and Red Speedo (Studio Theatre, Washington DC). A resident playwright at New Dramatists since 2011, Lucas Hnath has enjoyed playwriting residencies with The Royal Court Theatre, London and 24Seven Lab, New York. He is a two-time winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant for his feature-length screenplays, The Painting, the Machine and the Apple and Still Life. He received both his BFA and MFA from NYU’s Department of Dramatic Writing and is a lecturer in NYU’s Expository Writing Program.

Photo Lucas Hnath: Tony Cenicola/The New York Times | Production photo: Daniel Gentelev

The Color of Honey

The Color of Honey is an exploration of loneliness and love, led by the voice of a woman living far away from her homeland.

Unable to leave her apartment very often, she has invited the audience into her home for an evening. But what was intended to be a friendly visit slowly takes a desperate and haunting turn. Through the dramatic representation of romantic first impressions, memorable first encounters, present hardships, and hope for what seems like an impenetrable future, this work in progress ultimately comes into contact with a very difficult question: Why can’t love fill a day?