NEW PLAYS FROM EUROPE
New Plays from Europe is the largest international festival for contemporary drama worldwide. From 19 – 21 June 2014, the theatre biennial under artist directors Manfred Beilharz, Tankred Dorst, Ursula Ehler, Ann-Marie Arioli and Peter Michalzik, presents a selection of what authors are currently writing for European stages. For the twelfth and last edition of the festival, the Hessian State Theatre Wiesbaden and Künstlerhaus Mousonturm are cooperating for the first time. That this Biennial is so well suited for Künstlerhaus Mousonturm not only in its historical development and significance, but also in its current, hybrid and extended form and its keen eye for the social, political and economical realities in Europe, is also due to the festival’s ability to resist excessive mainstreaming, flighty fashions and the streamlining of the international performing arts festival business.
Mousonturm will be hosting a small Hungarian focus during the festival; a closer look at the political, social and cultural situation in Budapest. Two of the most interesting Hungarian contemporary directors and authors are coming to Frankfurt for the first time to present their newest work: Béla Pintér, whose pieces often deal with Hungary’s history and culture in very radical ways, discloses Our Secrets in a retrospective look at the time before the fall of the Iron Curtain; film and theatre director Kornél Mundruczó, internationally famous for his uncompromising exceptional pieces, extreme in both subject matter and acting style, brings with Dementia a garish farce about the neoliberal present and liquidation of the Hungarian cultural landscape.
Dramaturge Márton Gulyás,, who has also developed a number of highly creative activist and participatory formats over the past few years together with director Arpad Schilling and the group Krétakör, will give a lecture about his work and his point of views. Introductions before every performance and post-performance talks with the artists will complete the programme.
The Moscow Theatre of Nations brings the production Three Days in Hell by Belarusian contemporary author Pawel Prjaschko and director Dmitriy Wolkostrelow to the Frankfurt LAB – transforming it into a kind of military base. A real discovery!
All foreign language performances during the festival will be shown as original versions with simultaneous German translations.
The festival will cooperate with the Künstlerhaus Mousonturm Frankfurt. It will be complemented by various forums for young playwrights, translators and critics as well as an extensive programme of accompanying events. For more information about the program please visit www.newplays.de.
Festival opening on 20th June, 7 p.m.
Theatre Biennal of the Hessian State Theatre in Wiesbaden in cooperation with Künstlerhaus Mousonturm