Petra Kohse has written for the Wanderlust blog since its launch. She has traveled to our Wanderlust theatres and reported on theatre partnerships on location. As her stint as a “Pfadfinder” (theatre scout) winds down, she focuses in her last blog post on contemporary theatre criticism and the conflicting situation in which theatre critics find themselves when working for non-journalistic media, such as an online blog. We thank Petra for her strong commitment and many interesting blog entries. At the start of the new theatre season in September 2011, Tobi Müller will take her place as a Wanderlust blog writer. More info coming soon…

Theatre criticism is (or has been) a journalistic genre, tailored to a specific target group which variety of media aim to reach. In professional journals, one finds detailed descriptions of plays and comparisons with earlier pieces / productions by the same playwright / director. In national papers, readers are presented with articles about current debates in theatre, while in the local papers, the reviews generally fall into the category of “Go! – Don’t Go!” recommendations or warnings. Reports in purely journalistic websites (e.g. Spiegel Online, nachtritik) are usually based on print versions and targeted at their own readership.

The right format is helpful when writing theatre criticism, as it is generally impossible to put an entire evening of theatre into words. And the larger the readership, the less obligated the critic may feel toward the theatre – as a writer who informs the public about (what is normally) publicly funded art.

In recent years, however, a growing number of theatre critics have begun working for non-journalistic media. Freelance writers have been doing this for financial reasons ever since newspapers – to put it positively – began relying more heavily on their permanent staff. And the editors have been doing it because freelancers do it and they want to retain their predominant influence on public opinion. These non-journalistic media are published by theatres themselves in the form of play programmes or seasonal programmes. Or they can be special forums, such as the Wanderlust blog. Or discussion events at theatres, presented by critics, or even entire symposiums, organized and moderated – not by dramaturges – but by theatre critics.

There are differenct ideas of what a classical topic might be. Film still from "Romeo and Juliet" by Baz Luhrmann, 2006.

In our first spotlight in August 2010, Petra Kohse reported on multilingualism on stage and examined how theatres chose to convey it. In this next spotlight, I’d like to look at what exactly is being conveyed (or not) in those surtitles, subtitles, paraphrases and simultaneous translations. Which topics of mutual interest have the theatres in the Wanderlust Fund chosen for their co-productions? Are the themes global or rather local in scope? Does their intercultural experience, which they’ve gained behind the scenes, also “play a role” on stage? Do they revert to classical pieces as a foil to examine cultural differences? Do they commission playwrights or do they, the actors, dramaturges and directors, develop their own material from research and improvisation? Which forms are over- or underrepresented in comparison to the theatres’ regular programmes?

There it was again, this time at the HAU in Berlin for a guest performance of Jan Klata’s “The Promised Land” by the Polski Express from Wrocław – that good, old simultaneous translation piped in over earphones. At the cloakroom you swapped your ID for the device, switched it to the right channel, stuck in an earbud, letting the other one hang down (in order to hear what they said on stage), and then hoped it would work. Hoped, that is, that the translator’s voice (Agnieszka Grzybkowska’s at the HAU) would be so unobtrusive and intrinsic to the performance that it could be perceived as a natural processing station for all that was said en route from the stage to the brain. It’s best when she (for some reason, the translator always seems to be a she) is not a native speaker of German, but has a slight accent from the country where the play originates. Ever since I watched the guest performance of Lew Dodin’s small-town saga “Brothers and Sisters” by the St. Petersburg Maly Teatr at the Theater der Welt festival in Hamburg in 1989, I’ve associated world theatre with this useful, monotone, charmingly accentuated voice in my ear that makes me feel I’ve listened to (and understood) the real-time dialogue on stage. Compliments to those simultaneous translators!