Theater in times of still-corona – culture

How does the calculation work out best: with 2 G, 3 G or 3 G plus? What sounds like higher mathematics (and ultimately it is) is currently the big question in theaters. There is no calculation result yet. The rules differ from state to state, and their implementation differs from house to house to such an extent that no one can see through for a long time.

At the Berlin Schaubühne, only for example, 3 Gs (vaccinated, recovered or tested negative) and mask compulsory can be fully occupied again, there is a separate guidance system, and after the performance is over, rows of spectators are called separately to check out like on an airplane . The Hamburger Schauspielhaus also practices 3 G with a mask, but with “chessboard” seating, but there are also individual performances with 2 G (for those who have been vaccinated and those who have recovered), then without a mask and with a full cast. At the Schauspielhaus Bochum, as in Cologne (3 G and chessboard), the mask can be removed from the seat. But not in Düsseldorf. And at the Dresden State Theater? Oh, look at the homepage.

There is also the greatest confusion because the “Infection Protection Measures Ordinance” – that’s the word that contains the tapeworm! – are constantly changing. Let’s take Bavaria: According to a cabinet decision, theaters and other organizers have had the option of using the 2-G or 3-G plus rule at admission for a week (plus means that only a PCR test that is no longer than 48 hours old is accepted , none from the drugstore). Then upper limits and distance requirements no longer apply, nobody has to wear a mask. Sparkling wine in the foyer and parties after premieres are also going on again. Alcohol has been completely prohibited in houses with more than 1000 seats.

At the opening of the Munich Isarphilharmonie last weekend, 1,800 maskless 3-G-plus people suddenly crowded together with drinks as if nothing had ever happened. Some people may have felt a little queasy, the pandemic is not over. But many cheered: Almost as before! Unvaccinated people lose out. You have to pay between 70 and 130 euros for PCR tests, the tests have been subject to a charge since Monday. Going to the theater will be an expensive pleasure.

It is up to the organizers in Bavaria whether they continue to use 3G and accept restrictions, or whether they switch to 2D or 3G plus with more normality again. Intendant Jens-Daniel Herzog immediately introduced 3 G plus at the State Theater in Nuremberg. Many visitors found the mask requirement at the seat and the forbidden bar operation during the breaks as annoying, it is said from the house. They want to offer theater as an “overall experience” again. As is now the case in many houses, admission control is carried out contactless with ticket scanners. They can also quickly capture digital evidence with the help of QR codes.

The Munich State Opera under the new management of Serge Dorny is still holding back. There you stay under the motto “Stay healthy” for the time being with 3 G and mask compulsory, wants to “first check the mood in the audience”, so the spokesman Michael Wuerges. To this end, the opera started an audience survey on Monday. Because it could well be that the visitors in a house with 2101 seats would prefer more security and therefore approve of masks and a ban on alcohol. There was already one at the Zurich Opera House Elevation. The result: 53.7 percent of the participants rated the mask requirement positively (although 91.4 percent of them are mostly vaccinated or have recovered); only 29.4 percent rejected it. Why the masks are kept in Zurich.

“Most important to us is that the audience feels comfortable and safe.”

In Munich, too, where the opera has been fully booked again since September 1st, people are hoping for reliable numbers. “The most important thing for us is that the audience feels comfortable and safe,” says Wuerges. And maybe one could find out from the survey why some of them stay away. “We are well attended, but not sold out.” Tickets are seldom as easy as it is now, and the audience is “still hesitant,” according to the formulation that the directors across the country seem to have agreed on. Many see the cause of all evil in the mask.

Ingrid Trobitz, the deputy director of the Munich Residenztheater (“Resi”), reports on emails and phone calls in which viewers complain about this. Who do not see why they have to sit in the theater vaccinated with face masks; plus in five to six hour performances like Simon Stone’s “Our Time” or Judith Herzberg’s trilogy “The Dreams of the Absent”. And that may be precisely because of that (because these ideas, offered in free sale, were far from full). The Resi will switch to 3 G plus on Friday. From November there will also be subscription presentations again. And 2 G? Is out of the question as an option: “We do not want to rule out the possibility of testing in principle.”

“In terms of implementation, 3 G plus means 2 G anyway, as expensive as the PCR tests are,” moans Barbara Mundel, the artistic director of the Münchner Kammerspiele, who seems a little stressed about new “hygiene issues”. The season in Munich only started in mid-September. Shortly before that, at the beginning of September, the Bavarian state government issued the stipulation: full occupation at 3 G. One month later, the 3 G plus option suddenly appeared. “In theory you are happy about it, but only in theory,” says Mundel, “in practice it is complicated.” For example, you have already sold tickets on 3G terms. Trouble is bound to happen. And if you do 3 G plus, the staff must also meet the requirements.

Stages that start from scratch can immediately and easily switch to 3G plus, such as the Isarphilharmonie or the Munich Volkstheater, which will inaugurate its new building on Friday. In a certain way, these houses exert social pressure on other stages – Mundel does not want to change the Kammerspiele until the end of October. She says: “I would like to take a deep breath and see how the audience is doing and what they want.”

Everywhere the same question: what do the audience want and what do they fear? The theater audience, it can be assumed, is for the most part vaccinated. When making a random call to the artistic directors, there is no one who would not confirm this in relation to his “regular audience”. Sonja Anders (Hanover Theater) speaks of 90 percent, Joachim Lux (Thalia-Theater Hamburg) of “ten times, times 15 non-vaccinated people per evening”, Barbara Mundel mentions as a finding from the previous cash register information: “If some have not yet been vaccinated then these are young people, between five and ten percent. “

Ulrich Khuon assumes that up to 15 percent of 70 and 80 year olds will not return

The elderly vaccinated in particular seem to be the largest group among the “hesitant”. Ulrich Khuon, the director of the Deutsches Theater Berlin (DT), speaks of a “felt quarter” of the audience that is still waiting. It is unclear whether this is due to the obligation to wear a mask, the sensual restrictions of the overall “theater visit” package, insecurity or real fear of contagion despite the vaccination. Khuon, who, as the former president of the German Stage Association, has a good overview of the overall theater situation, assumes that some of the people over 70 and 80 in particular will not return. He expects a drop of ten to fifteen percent. So he doesn’t sound the alarm: “It will be an effort, but not a horror experience. It can also be fun to try out new things and to win over audiences.”

Open detailed view

This is also the opinion of Wilfried Schulz, director of the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, which is also “not overrun” by the audience. But Schulz speaks of a great “affection and warmth”, he even uses the word “tenderness”. Schulz says that he personally likes it very much, “this looking for someone else”. The requirement to wear a mask is essential for him to ensure greater security, even when the chessboard is occupied. He also doesn’t understand the discussions: his son is wearing a mask in every school lesson.

Andreas Beck, the artistic director of the Munich Residenztheater, raises the question of audience numbers. “Of course it doesn’t go like Bolle – but how?” His motto: “Stay with yourself, do a good job and don’t fall into self-tearing again! I think we all have to give each other half a year now.” On the one hand, the season starts slowly after the summer holidays even in normal times, for example in Munich because of the Oktoberfest. On the other hand, lockdown victims would first have to rehearse a routine of togetherness: “We have also become couch potatoes mentally, not just physically. We have to get fit again first.” Fit for the theater too.

Burkhard C. Kosminski, director at the Schauspiel Stuttgart, reports of “high subscription losses” at his house. But he is not in a panic: “Now that life is opening up again, some still have fears. I think it will take a year to get back to normal.” He’s now running a big subscription campaign, developing a culture passport, making house calls: “Just close combat.” And as far as the content is concerned, he focuses on the “big issues of the present”. Kosminski thinks that you shouldn’t do a Corona retrospective or special Corona theater now.

“When people come together, miracles can be expected.”

You don’t have to play “Die Pest” now, everyone agrees. Sonja Anders receives feedback at the Hanover Theater that her audience wants to see comedies and musical material above all. “The conceited sick person” is sold out “because he is so funny”, pieces like the “Climate Trilogy” have a hard time. As a theater maker, it is exactly the other way around: the pandemic neglected major, important issues, such as the climate, Afghanistan, and women’s issues. These are substances that now have to be on the stage.

DT Director Ulrich Khuon calls for “urgency”. The theater must ask transcendental questions. Questions about creation. After the empathy and self-empowerment of people “who still thought in the nineties that he could recreate heaven on earth”. He is not surprised that there are so many “Oedipus” productions at the moment: It is about the blindness of people towards themselves and their deeds. Or Mary Shelley’s currently so popular “Frankenstein”: a symbol for people who want to surpass themselves. Basically, Khuon is confident about the situation in the theater: “I believe strongly in community. And in Hannah Arendt’s motto: When people come together, miracles have to be expected.”

Joachim Lux dampens optimism. The director of the Hamburg Thalia Theater reckons with a “long-term lost audience” and with “hard work” to recapture it. Lux also poses a much larger set of problems: empty city coffers, rising energy prices, tariff increases, inflation – this results in an “explosive cocktail of additional costs and reduced income”. Only a state cultural fund could really help. Helpless silence on the phone. Then spoiler Lux says: “We are all now pretending it’s over. What if the incidences rise again?” Curtain. Cliffhanger. Sequel follows.