Welcome!
Dear audience,
A new age of barbarism seems to have dawned with no end in sight: climate catastrophe, war and inflation are the new normal. Pandemics expose the precariousness of bodies, artificial intelligence makes human labour obsolete. The erosion of the Western promise of prosperity is accompanied by the disintegration of liberal democracy and the renewed rise of fascism. After the first festival edition curated by Julian Warner (B23: BRECHT'S PEOPLE) posed the question of the subject of the Brecht Festival, 2024 is about the rubble heap of history on which Brecht's People dwell and struggle.
Based on the intellectual friendship between Bertolt Brecht and Walter Benjamin, the crises, dislocations and catastrophes of our time are not understood as exceptions but as perpetual concomitants of progress. But how is it possible to escape from this disastrous course of history?
In the festival centre Brechts Kraftklub, resistance is formed against a threatening futurelessness. Here, bodies are formed and efforts are made - on the physical level as well as on that of the mind and aesthetics. Readings, film installations, discussions and the Brechtnacht take place as well as training sessions and sports competitions.
Brechts Kraftklub is a place to train and discuss, to build muscle and to strengthen.
If you speak English, we would like to draw your special attention to the following events:
- February 23., 7.30pm, martini Park *.
"Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht". - February 25., 7.30 pm, martini-Park *
"Hayat Seni Çok Seviyorum / Life, I love you so much" by İlhan Sami Çomak. Followed by an audience discussion with Kemal Aydoğan (director), Can Dündar (journalist) and Shermin Langhoff (Gorki Theatre). - February 27., 6.30 pm, brechtbühne *.
"Memoria" by Nana Grinstein (Augsburg exile version).
Documentary play about memory and recollection
With subsequent audience discussion with Irina Scherbakova - March 2., 7.30 pm, brechtbühne
"The Caucasian Chalk Circle" after Bertolt Brecht - March 3., 6 pm, brechtbühne
"The Caucasian Chalk Circle" after Bertolt Brecht - March 3., 3 pm , martini Park
"Mother Courage and her Children" by Bertolt Brecht
For the performances marked with *, an internet-enabled smartphone is required for the surtitles.