Between Private Tastes and Public Influence ? Private Art Collections in Germany

Never before have there been so many private collectors making extensive acquisitions of contemporary art. Are they the real key figures of a global art business?... more more

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American-Venetian burnout

Thursday 23 June, 2009

TeaserPicPeter Sellars' "Othello" which premiered last week at the Viennese Festwochen is a psychological study with political muscle. Shakespeare's Venetians are an occupying US force of Afro-Americans and Latinos. The motor of the tragedy, a flabby white brain played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. Barbara Villiger Heilig was impressed. Photo: Gaius Charles by Armin Bardel
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We meet in loneliness

Monday 30 March, 2008

Since being diagnosed with lung cancer last year, Christoph Schlingensief has made his illness the subject of a theatre trilogy. In what he describes as a readymade opera, "Mea Culpa", the final part now playing in Vienna's Burgtheater, is a mature, elegiac and exhibitionistic parody of everything the world has ever constructed around the big C. By Peter Michalzik
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A general who no longer wants to act

Friday 28 December, 2007

An interview with one of the grand old men of German theatre, Gert Voss, about Schiller's Wallenstein, the glories and the disappointments of the stage, and a life-long love of cinema. By Peter Kümmel
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I have to let it out!

Monday 17 December, 2007

The celebrated German theatre collective Rimini Protokoll gives centre stage to "experts on everyday life". Eva Behrendt met three of its unsuspecting stars: English Literature student Priyanka Nandy, lorry driver Vento Borissov and corporate consultant Sven-Joachim Otto.
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Arrests after the second act

Monday 3 September, 2007

Although Belarus "Free Theatre" stages its critical plays in discreet locations - cafes, apartments and even the woods - they have not escaped the attentions of the state authorities. Ingo Petz on a theatre group that's immune to intimidation.
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Fear of the standstill

Thursday 23 August, 2007

The Berlin festival Tanz im August presents human swarms, wailing feedback and the dark side of the pas de deux. This is good for dance. By Katrin Bettina Müller
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The story of the potato

Wednesday 1 August, 2007

A great theatre pair – director Luk Perceval and actor Thomas Thieme talk about fear, fury and self-hatred on the occasion of their five-hour Moliere marathon which just premiered at the Salzburg Festival. And about being a potato. By Peter Michalzik


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Relentless in acting and anger

Friday 27 July, 2007

Fighting the system of informers in the GDR was his life's task. It made him ill - and famous. On the death of Ulrich Mühe. By Matthias Heine
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Triggering dramatic fantasy

Monday 25 June, 2007

The Mülheimer Theatertage is a festival of contemporary plays. Christopher Schmidt takes a look at current trends and discovers truth-protocols, text surfaces and the Hamburg telephone book. But is there a dramatist in the house?
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Mourning at full throttle

Monday 4 June, 2007

Of mothers and children: Sasha Waltz has staged Pascal Dusapin's "Medea" opera in Luxembourg. Yet while the spirit races, the dancing is in slow motion. By Christiane Peitz
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Escapology and the endgame

Monday 14 May, 2007

Germany's top theatre festival is taking place in Berlin, the Theatertreffen. But does the theatre still have anything to celebrate? Absolutely! A defence of the stage in the age of cable TV and computer games. By Peter Kümmel.
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Radical geriatric

Monday 6 November, 2006

Revolution with a whiff of dementia. Nicolas Stemann stages Elfriede Jelinek's play "Ulrike Maria Stuart" in Hamburg's Thalia Theatre. Intelligent septuagenarian RAF schlock horror, says Christopher Schmidt.
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"You are gonna love me"

Wednesday 26 July, 2006

Sylvia Staude reports from Vienna's ImPulsTanz festival, a month-long contemporary dance platform with something for everyone, from the biggest names to the most passionate non-dancers.
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The animal in you

Wednesday 12 July, 2006

Theatre director Thomas Ostermeier and choreographer Constanza Macras have shaken things up at the Athens & Epidaurus Festival in Greece, with a sexed-up, grotesquely over the top, babylonically confused party called "A Midsummer Night's Dream." By Christine Dössel
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20 kilos of drama

Tuesday 2 May, 2006

Berlin's favourite Russian writer Wladimir Kaminer sat on the scriptwriting jury at this year's Theatertreffen festival. He recounts the horrors of reading plays by the kilo and reminisces about his own dubious-sounding contributions to the dramatic arts.

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