by 9 authors of different nationalities
A production of fringe ensemble and Schaubühne Lindenfels, Leipzig in cooperation with Theater im Ballsaal, Bonn, Theater im Pumpenhaus, Münster, Forum Freies Theater, Düsseldorf
The year 2013 marks the anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. We will meet this anniversary of a European war event with our project VÖLKERSCHLACHTEN as a multinational text battle. Authors of different nationalities meet in Leipzig to engage in productive battles in a refuge to be created, inspired by actors and in the encounter with the audience, by reflecting on a transnational society (to be fantasized). In 2014, the start of the First World War is also commemorated worldwide. For the campus in 2013 and the performances of the 2014 productions under the title VÖLKERSCHLACHTEN and VÖLKERSCHLACHTEN – DIE STÜCKE, these two events form a contextual frame of reference.
In the early summer of 2013, near the Monument to the Battle of the Nations in Leipzig, the authors and actors of the MILLENNIUM FRONT THEATER met for a three-week “text battle” at a specially set up camp. New texts were created daily, and almost daily they were presented to the curious public in a wide variety of settings and performances in the field camp.
Click here to go to the VÖLKERSCHLACHTEN-BLOG, where everything is documented.
In late summer, such a campus also took place in Bonn on the Rhine with the MILLENNIUM FRONT THEATER. At the VÖLKERSCHLACHTEN NRW texts were continued and again new ones were written by further authors. Immediately afterwards, the M.F.T. and its authors set off for Münster, where it camped and worked at Aasee for another two weeks. On the blog of the MILLENNIUM FRONT THEATER these phases are documented in detail.
BATTLES OF NATIONS – THE PIECES
BEFORE THE DOGS – THEATER FROM EUROPE
A production of fringe ensemble and Schaubühne Lindenfels, Leipzig
in co-production with Theater im Ballsaal, Bonn, the Theater im Pumpenhaus
By: Magdalena Barile, Ivo Briedis, Kristín Eiríksdóttir, Jens-Martin Eriksen, Goran Ferčec, Lothar Kittstein, Alexander Molchanov, Marie Nimier, Andreas Vonder
Under the title VOR DEN HUNDEN – THEATER AUS EUROPA the fringe ensemble and Schaubühne Lindenfels presented from 01. until March 08, 2014 the pieces created within the project VÖLKERSCHLACHTEN for the first time in Leipzig. Afterwards VOR DEN HUNDEN was also shown in Bonn at theaterimballsaal, in Münster at Theater im Pumpenhaus and in Cologne at studiobühneköln.
The materials and text modules obtained in the process of VÖLKERSCHLACHTEN so far are assembled into versions for the theater. There will not be a single valid piece text, but a multi-perspective texture.
How can theater tell of the wars and fronts of our day without itself becoming an image machine in the media war?
In the theater evening VOR DEN HUNDEN, fringe ensemble and Schaubühne Lindenfels follow the tracks, stories and characters of nine European authors along the front lines between war and non-war, man and beast, community and pack.
The setting is Europe, the time today.
There is no hiding the presence of war.
What am I doing here?
Digging.
I’m digging myself a nice hole….
The front is getting closer. This is what I tell you. I can smell it. There is a fine scent of smoke and blood, very fine. But the front is getting closer…
And I don’t want others to have to dig.
And I don’t want to just lie around somewhere. I want a nice, neat hole. And that is not easy.
The ground is full of bones.
(Lothar Kittstein)
When man faces a beast that he himself has created, the war has long since begun. When it’s just a matter of not going to the dogs yourself, of not being the last one, the one they bite, then it’s war: bank wars, labor battles, terror maneuvers, fighting prices, Playstation…
This is the true story of the dog, told by himself.
From the dog himself. The whole truth.
The dog that is me. And this is my story.
Gilbrecht, the story of Gilbrecht in the battle…
(Marie Nimier)
In BEFORE THE DOGS, dogs and people will talk – about their wars, but also about the smell of peace.
As part of the two-year project VÖLKERSCHLACHTEN.A production by fringe ensemble, Bonn, and Schaubühne Lindenfels, Leipzig, in cooperation with theaterimballsaal, Bonn, and Theater im Pumpenhaus, Münster. Funded by the Fonds Doppelpass of the German Federal Cultural Foundation. www.voelkerschlachten.net
By 9 authors of different nationalities
A production of fringe ensemble and Schaubühne Lindenfels, Leipzig, in collaboration with the architecture class of HTWK and the German Literature Institute, both in Leipzig in cooperation with the Theater im Ballsaal, Bonn, Theater im Pumpenhaus, Münster, the Forum Freies Theater, Düsseldorf.