Bertolt Brecht, rugby and finger billiards don’t seem to have much to do with each other. However, things are different at the Augsburg Brecht Festival, where “Mother Courage” meets the “Strength Club”. Festival director Julian Warner explains why this is the case.
Does it always have to be about the texts of Bertolt Brecht? If you look at this year’s program at the Augsburg Brecht Festival, the conclusion is obvious: not necessarily. Festival director Julian Warner has found his own path to the Augsburg-born poet. Instead of dramas and poems, he is more concerned with Brecht’s ideas and concepts. And this time it’s mainly about Brecht’s approach to sport. The Brecht Festival starts on the 23rd with the title “No Future”, it is the second edition that Warner is curating. Shortly before the start, the cultural anthropologist had to defend himself against accusations of anti-Semitism, which he was able to dispel. The background was a letter signed by more than 1,500 cultural workers, which in 2020 opposed a Bundestag resolution on the boycott movement “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” (BDS).