Dramaturgie im zeitgenössischen Tanz ist ? positiv gemeint ? ein heißes Eisen. Idealerweise sind Dramaturginnen und Dramaturgen während der Erarbeitung eines Stücks die besten Freunde der Choreografen.
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Andrea Breth has just directed Alban Berg's "Wozzeck" at the Staatsoper in Berlin, to substantial critical acclaim. Mid-rehearsal, she makes time to talk to Niklaus Hablützel about Büchner's word compositions, why only singing beautifully can ruin everything, and the power of curtains.
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The feminist theatre collective She She Pop has been invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen for the first time, but with "Testament" a piece about their fathers, of all things. Appearing on stage with their fathers and using recordings of off-stage dialogues, the collective employs its signature confrontational style to examine the poignant and implosive issues inherent to the unspoken contract between generations. By Katrin Bettina Müller
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Update: The German pavilion at this year's Venice Biennale is dedicated to Christoph Schlingensief who died in August last year, aged just 49. Regarded by many as a genius, for others he was a provocateur or merely a con artist. While still undergoing chemotherapy he travelled to Burkino Faso to oversee work on the opera village which is being built there on his instigation. His memoirs are due to be published in September. He talked to Thomas David about his obsession with Africa, the importance of disturbing the peace and why he didn't become the man he wanted to be.
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Peter Sellars' "Othello" which premiered last week at the Viennese Festwochen is a psychological study with political muscle. Shakespeare's Venetians are an occupying US force of Afro-Americans and Latinos. The motor of the tragedy, a flabby white brain played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Barbara Villiger Heilig was impressed. Photo: Gaius Charles by Armin Bardel
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Since being diagnosed with lung cancer last year, Christoph Schlingensief has made his illness the subject of a theatre trilogy. In what he describes as a readymade opera, "Mea Culpa", the final part now playing in Vienna's Burgtheater, is a mature, elegiac and exhibitionistic parody of everything the world has ever constructed around the big C. By Peter Michalzik
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An interview with one of the grand old men of German theatre, Gert Voss, about Schiller's Wallenstein, the glories and the disappointments of the stage, and a life-long love of cinema. By Peter Kümmel
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The celebrated German theatre collective Rimini Protokoll gives centre stage to "experts on everyday life". Eva Behrendt met three of its unsuspecting stars: English Literature student Priyanka Nandy, lorry driver Vento Borissov and corporate consultant Sven-Joachim Otto.
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Although Belarus "Free Theatre" stages its critical plays in discreet locations - cafes, apartments and even the woods - they have not escaped the attentions of the state authorities. Ingo Petz on a theatre group that's immune to intimidation.
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A great theatre pair – director Luk Perceval and actor Thomas Thieme talk about fear, fury and self-hatred on the occasion of their five-hour Moliere marathon which just premiered at the Salzburg Festival. And about being a potato. By Peter Michalzik
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Fighting the system of informers in the GDR was his life's task. It made him ill - and famous. On the death of Ulrich Mühe. By Matthias Heine
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Germany's top theatre festival is taking place in Berlin, the Theatertreffen. But does the theatre still have anything to celebrate? Absolutely! A defence of the stage in the age of cable TV and computer games. By Peter Kümmel.
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Berlin's favourite Russian writer Wladimir Kaminer sat on the scriptwriting jury at this year's Theatertreffen festival. He recounts the horrors of reading plays by the kilo and reminisces about his own dubious-sounding contributions to the dramatic arts.
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In an arresting new play, five young Muslim women lift the veil on a taboo: sex. Director Neco Celik talks to Michaela Schlagenwerth about his own conflict with Islam and why he chose this explosive material for his first play.
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Making audiences happy makes other people suspicious. Max
Reinhardt not only staged theatre in Berlin, he also built and ran several of them very successfully. He democratised the closed world of theatre, but he has never been able to
shake the accusation of being apolitical. By Esther Slevogt
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Euripides' play "The Bacchae" is making a comeback on stages across Europe. But can we recapture the brutality of the bard of ancient times? In Munich Jossi Wieler tries hard but fails to portray the play's profound weirdness and horror. By
Peter Michalzik (Image © Arno Declair)
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