Theater der Welt features experimental shows

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29 June:
MAINSTAGE PROGRAMS at Theater der Welt are turning out to be almost exclusively new creations and works in progress. While there have been some disappointments, I have also experienced sublime moments that will, no doubt, do what I hoped for in coming here, namely provide inspiration for my own artistic work.

One observation that recalls theatre experiences from my youth: There have been looong applauses following most performances -- not the phony standing ovations, but the sustained multiple-curtain-calls types you rarely see in North America. Can you imagine enthusiastic clapping without letting up for more than five minutes? Well, they're doing it here! It's outright heart-warming to see, with the troupe of actors or dancers obviously moved by such a response embracing them!

I have seen everything from a much touted and hugely complex, yet disappointing (in scope, theme and execution) Italian marionettes creation to an ensemble production of young Germans, Palestinians and Israelis who knocked my socks off with their risque handling of the sacrosanct and hyper-sensitive themes of the Holocaust and present-day Jewish-Arab relationships. Inbetween, a Japanese avant-garde play on a parallel stage (audience on two sides, tennis-court-style), a staged reading of correspondences between leading lights of the Communist Party in post-war Italy (with two aging protagonists in attendance to boot!), a four-hour surreal show in the opera house of Goethe's "Faust" by a noted Lithuanian director, and an improvisational modern dance performance by a Kenyan/Senegalese troupe set in the 18th-century 112-hectare (276 acre) royal gardens of Wörlitz, an hour's shuttle bus ride from Halle.

On my way back the following day I step onto a dilapidated train station at the edge of this village of 2000 inhabitants. I keep checking schedules and asking around because it doesn't seem anything would stop at such a forlorn-looking place, with its doors and windows either broken or nailed shut. But then, there it was: a state-of-the-art double-decker commuter train.

The half-hour trip to the town of Dessau, where my connecting train would carry on to Halle, costs the royal sum of three Euros ($4.50) and takes us away from busy highways through pine and birch forests, wheat and barley fields, farmland and small villages. It reminds me of the Victoria to Courtenay railway route back home. But here I see a bird's nest the size of two tractor tires resting on top of an unused factory chimney and a pair of giant white storks circling above the trees -- the ones that (folklore says) carry babies to their destined homes.

In Dessau I make a two-and-a-half hour stop and visit the 1926 Bauhaus of ground-breaking architect and designer Walter Gropius as well as an art gallery selling the distinct chrome or wood furniture of those days. I notice a replica Wassily folding chair with a price tag of 695 Euros ($1000), while an original writing desk is for sale for a cool 15,000 Euros. Just what I'd have liked for my birthday... :-)

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Photos

Gondolas on Lake Wörlitz
including cake and bubblies to keep the audience occupied, are heading for outdoor shows by an African performance troupe.

Wörlitz Bahnhof,
like many other village train stations, has fallen into disrepair, although commuter trains are modern.

Mailbox
of Germany's federal postal service -- rather compact when compared to North American standards.

Mirror, mirror on the sidewalk
The little town of Dessau is proud of its ultra-modern Bauhaus-style artifacts.

Cervantes' modern giants
Windmills like these, generating wind power, dot the landscape of this flat country.