Of
Cornelius Pollmer
The news from Gotha on Friday seemed as if the Berlin Theatertreffen had opened a franchise in Thuringia at short notice, a kind of side festival to strengthen amateur acting. Poets, essayists and novelists are said to be organized in the international association PEN – but at the annual conference of its German branch there was a spectacular premiere. A thunderous drama with noise, riots and strong language, and with a finale in which the previous President Deniz Yücel, using the vocabulary “important” and “Bratwurstbude”, screamingly declared his resignation before – the pen belongs to the paper – a DIN A4 page and threw the bale off the stage into the audience during the storm. Is the criticism enthusiastic? Does she judge: Finally something going on on German stages again?