The Kammerspiele presented the world premiere of Heart Chamber Fragments, a production by Paper Tiger Theater Studio, an independent Chinese theatre collective. Founded by Tian Gebing in Beijing in 1997, with a branch in Berlin for the past two years, Paper Tiger includes artists from different professional backgrounds in dance, theatre, and the fine arts,who get together to develop theatre projects combining theatre, performance, and dance. As stated in the program, their focus is on the reality of everyday life and its brutal absurdity.

Courtesy of Judith Buss.

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After his rather unsuccessful venture Caspar Western Friedrich, director Philippe Quesne returns to the Münchner Kammerspiele with a pastoral set in a dystopian future. Humanity has finally succeeded in destroying itself. Only four scarecrows remain on a farm, archivists of the past who run their own radio station.

Courtesy of Martin Argyroglo.

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After Der Fall Meursault – Eine Gegendarstellung and The Assassin, Iranian director Amir Reza Koohestani returns to the Kammerspiele with his own version of the Scottish play.

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Morning in Byzantium is the second Kammerspiele Production by New York director and choreographer Trajal Harrell. Whereas Juliet & Romeo focused on youthful death, Morning in Byzantium sees the end of life as only one of various possibilities, and the director chooses life.

Courtesy of Orpheas Emirzas.

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Toshiki Okada is one of the most important Asian directors. No Sex is his third work for the Kammerspiele, it premiered on 14th April 2018. A stage director and author, Okada founded the theatre group chelfitsch in 1997, which had their first international success with 5 Days in March, a play about two young people fleeing to a love hotel to have sex for five days. His latest play deals with a group of young men who think that sex no longer matters.

Courtesy of Julian Baumann.

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Gerhard Polt is an award-winning Bavarian writer, filmmaker, actor, and one of the most highly regarded cabaret artists in Germany. His satire focuses on the Bavarian people, culture and politics with Polt usually playing the role of a feisty Bavarian petit-bourgeois. He enjoys using puns and his texts constantly switch between Bavarian and high German, also including a few English words often used by Germans who want to appear particularly trendy. In 1979, Gerhard Polt first staged Kehraus (Last Dance) in the Werkraum (studio) of the Münchner Kammerspiele, followed by his successful production München leuchtet (Munich Shines) in 1984. Following the musical revue “Fein sein beinander bleibn” by the Well Brothers – formerly Biermösl Blosn, Behold the Man (Ekzem Homo) is a political revue by and with Gerhard Polt and the Well Brothers that first premiered at the Kammerspiele in 2015 and is now celebrating its 70th performance.

Courtesy of Andrea Huber.

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The continuing success of right-wing populist parties and Trump’s presidency are worrying at best. Many people feel powerless, hoping that this situation will soon pass. Lion Feuchtwanger contemplated very similar problems in his trilogy Wartesaal (Waiting Room), which he wrote between 1930 and 1939. Feuchtwanger ‘s observations of national socialism in the 1930s were almost visionary and already entailed a theory of swarm intelligence, decades before this phenomenon was actually described.

Courtesy of Arno Declair.

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Toshiki Okada, one of the most important Asian directors, presents his latest work, Nō Theater, at the Kammerspiele. A stage director and author, Okada founded the theatre group chelfitsch – a pun on the word “selfish”, in 1997. His poetic-musical work focuses on the societal problems of contemporary Japan and is greatly influenced by Bertolt Brecht’s Verfremdungseffekt, often tearing down the fourth wall. His productions have received various awards. Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner and the Farewell Speech (2009), Current Location (2012) and Ground and Floor (2013) have all been shown in Europe, Super Premium Soft Double Vanilla Rich (2014) was presented at the festival Theater der Welt in Mannheim.

Courtesy of Münchner Kammerspiele.

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