Little did I know when attending the press conference in June, that the Münchner Kammerspiele would be voted “Theatre of the Year 2019” by the critics of the highly esteemed theatre magazine “Theater heute” only two months later. “Theater heute” also chose the impressive 10-hour production Dionysos Stadt by Christopher Rüping as “Production of the Year”and Nils Kahnwald as “Actor of the Year” for the same production. Best newcomer awards went to Kammerspiele ensemble members Gro Swantje Kohlhof and Benjamin Radjaipour. Lena Newton‘s stage design for Susanne Kennedy’s adaptation of Three Sisters was also considered the year’s best work. A triumph for Artistic Director Matthias Lilienthal who presented his final season at the Kammerspiele.

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Damian Rebgetz, born in Darwin, Australia, has been a member of the Kammerspiele ensemble since 2015, playing such diverse roles as Yasha in The Cherry Orchard and das Fräulein in Mittelreich. With his background in classical music and music theatre, Rebgetz’s desire to present a lieder recital did not come as a surprise. Yet the material he had chosen was rather unusual.

Courtesy of Tien Nguyen The.

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Accept. Enjoy. Merge. Glorify. Glorify. Glorify. (Timothy Leary). The Virgin Suicides was the 1993 debut novel by acclaimed American writer Jeffrey Eugenides. Set in a Detroit suburb during the 1970s, the fictional story centres on the lives of five teenage sisters who are raised by fanatical Catholic parents: Cecilia (13 years), Lux (14 years), Bonnie (15 years), Mary (16 years), and Therese (17 years). After the youngest girl makes an initial suicide attempt, her sisters are placed under close scrutiny by the parents, eventually being completely confined to their home. The girls seek to escape their imprisonment but their parents thwart their efforts and isolate them even more from the outside world, thereby destroying their dreams and suffocating their spirit. The girls all commit suicide within a year.

Courtesy of Judith Buss.

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For over a decade, choreographer Trajal Harrell has taken dance to new and exciting levels. His breakthrough was the series Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Jackson Church, fusing the early postmodern dance of 1960s New York with the traditions of the Harlem voguing balls. Lately Harrell has been inspired by the works of Tatsumi Hijikata, the founder of the Japanese Butoh dance. Trajal Harrell’s work has been shown in theatres in the U. S. and worldwide as well as in museums such as the MOMA in New York. After a grand-scale exposition of his work at the Barbican Centre in August, Harrell presents his first work at a German municipal theatre. This is also the first time that Harrell works with actors.

Courtesy of Orpheas Emirzas.

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