What’s on offer in Augsburg for Bertolt Brecht’s 125th birthday – Munich

The question of whether Bertolt Brecht likes Augsburg has been clarified. “Yes, I like Augsburg,” comes the answer. “It’s a beautiful city with a rich history and culture. I have many fond memories of my time there and I always love to come back.” Admittedly, that sounds very formal and unbrokenly positive. Perhaps Brecht should hone his words a bit more. Or rather, the artificial intelligence GPT3 should do this. Especially for the Brecht Festival from February 10th to 19th there is the co-production “Brechtmaschine” at the Augsburg State Theater, which consists of five parts, one of which is the “Brecht Bot”, which was programmed at the State Theater. On its homepage under “Ask Brecht” you can ask questions until the end of the festival, which the AI ​​should then answer “as Brecht”. Funny, totally up-to-date idea.

The fact that the theater in Augsburg cooperates with the annual Brecht Festival has a long tradition. This year the focus of the house is on the digital. The core is a “cybernetic media workshop” (February 11) in which the participants will write a new work together with GPT3 in a large zoom conference, which could be mistaken for a Brecht text. It will be premiered the very next day in a scenic reading (February 12).

Festival director Julian Warner has presented a program for the poet’s 125th birthday that is very wildly composed, ranging from AI projects to collective carpet weaving. A guiding principle is participation, just watching a play and then listening to some Brecht poetry, that’s not what Warner is about.

Warner moved the first festival he curated from the city center to the Lechhausen district. This parade will also be followed together with the audience at the beginning on February 10th: From the Golden Hall, a parade will take place in several stations to Lechhausen. Brecht’s birthday is then celebrated with a public banquet in the hall of the Alevi community. Lechhausen is not only the location of the festival, but also a topic, for example in an audio feature by Dorothea Schroeder or in contributions from the Alevi community and the Upper Bavarian Folk Costume Association, which are part of the district culture. The Augsburg ensemble “Bluespots Production” is also experimenting with “Saunah – A drama in three infusions” at a Lechhauser location: the Augsburg Sauna World, where actors and audience sweat together.

Why not settle city conflicts in the ring? In Augsburg this is now being tried out with wrestling.

(Photo: Jan Pieter Fuhr)

Concerts are not missing in this year’s edition either, there are about these Dakh Daughters from the Ukraine with their scenic concert “Ukraine Fire” (February 12), the women’s ensemble had already acted with enormous power at the 2021 festival with their music performance. The Brechtnacht is looking for “Impossible Music”, among other things The Notwist.

A classic stage format – this time from the Berliner Ensemble – is also included: Suse Wächter, star with her puppets singing Brechtsongs, in the digital edition of the 2021 and 2022 festivals, performs live (February 16). In addition, wrestling is added as an unusual format, the title is “Kampf um Augsburg”. Four professional wrestlers compete in eight different roles, each related to an Augsburg conflict (February 18 & 19). Warner views wrestling as a theatrical form, powerful when it comes to conflict. So why not have the Spezi dispute between the Riegele and Paulaner breweries fought out in the ring?

Should that not be enough: for the 125th birthday, the city has launched an additional program for the whole year. The festival week “Beer with Brecht” (February 4th to 10th), organized by the State Theater, is part of the birthday celebrations. There are lectures, readings, exhibitions and also a towel that the State Textile and Industrial Museum is bringing out with Brecht’s likeness. What does the Brecht bot have to say about this? “It’s weird seeing my own face on a towel, but it reminds me of the power of art to make us see ourselves in new ways.” Programmed very politely, this Brecht bot.

Brecht festivalFebruary 10-19, various locations; Brecht125, all year round, different places

source site