Theatre showcase Aachen: "An extra boost for my motivation"

In February, Theater Aachen brought Maurice Maeterlinck’s classic ‘The Blue Bird’ to the stage. To celebrate, we also organized staged readings of three contemporary plays from Flanders: Everyman by Freek Mariën, Mater by Femke Van der Steen and Source by Anna Carlier. Read our report of the Festival of Flemish Drama in Aachen.

A year and a half ago, at an annual conference of the Deutsche Dramaturgische Gesellschaft, we met Kerstin Grübmeyer for the first time. Last year she told us that she had now taken up a new position as Leitung Schauspiel at Theater Aachen, which was about to restage a play by Maurice Maeterlinck called ‘The Blue Bird’. Kersting had imagined that the play was often performed in Flanders, but we told her this was not the case. Despite his Nobel Prize, the author is perhaps less often read than was predicted when the award was made. This prompted curiosity among the drama team in Aachen as to how theatre scripts are doing nowadays in Flanders. Furthermore, Aachen is so close to Flanders that it’s in the perfect position, both literally and metaphorically, to introduce Flemish plays in Germany.

With that approach in mind, we set out to find three recent scripts to stage at the city’s very first Festival of Flemish Drama. The team at Theater Aachen (Kerstin Grübmeyer, Lucien Strauch and Sara Gabor) selected Everyman by Freek Mariën (translated by Christine Bais), Mater by Femke Van der Steen (translated by Lisa Mensing), and Source by Anna Carlier (translated by Christine Bais). Two years ago, Mater was nominated for the 2023 Toneelschrijfprijs (Dutch-language Theatre Text Award) and went on to win the Translation Prize, which ensured the play was now available in German and could be performed in collaboration with deAuteurs.

On the evening of Friday 14 February, we went straight into a panel discussion about cultural collaboration at the Three Country Point, where the borders of Germany, Flanders and the Netherlands meet. Among the participants were translator Lisa Mensing and Dahlia Pessemiers-Benamar, the new artistic co-leader of the German-language Belgian Agora Theater, who is also an actress and a dramatist.

On Saturday 15 February, shortened versions of the three selected scripts were performed as a read-through by four actors from the Theater Aachen’s ensemble, in the presence of the playwrights and translators. We also invited professional visitors to the event and as a result met, among others, Christoph Zabel of Verlag der Autoren (which decided to include Everyman on its list) and the artistic team at Theaterhaus G7 in Mannheim (which will perform the German translation of The Wetsuitman by Freek Mariën in September).

After the staged readings there was a discussion with the authors and translators that gave the audience plenty of opportunity to enter into a conversation with them. The intense daytime programme ended with a networking drinks party hosted by the Flemish Representation. In the evening ‘The Blue Bird’ was performed, followed by a discussion for anyone interested.

We could not guarantee in advance to the team at Theater Aachen that Anna Carlier, Freek Mariën and Femke Van der Steen would prove to be the successors to Maeterlinck. But in retrospect it turned out that the scripts had a greater connection with Maeterlinck than we thought. At the end of the readings, one person in the audience asked out loud whether the scripts had been inspired by the visual arts. In the four salmon in ‘Source’, the skeleton woman in ‘Mater’ and the universe of ‘Everyman’ he saw visual echoes of Brueghel, Ensor and Magritte. A powerful imagination and a playful handling of style and form are clearly still strong and unique selling points of our part of the world.

Author Anna Carlier: “‘I found the meeting with the people at Theater Aachen a great success. A warm reception, an enthusiastic team, pleasant discussions afterwards ... It was a highly enjoyable experience to hear ‘Source’ performed by the actors in German. Along with the audience, I laughed heartily and enjoyed their interpretations. I’d be very happy to come back."

Translator Christine Bais: “‘I really enjoyed the sparkling read-through by the actors of Theater Aachen, and I also found it highly enriching to enter into a conversation with the actors, dramaturges and audience. It was great to see the interest and enthusiasm with which the plays were received, and to hear which questions and themes arose. My motivation to work across borders was given an extra boost by this festival."

Author Femke Van der Steen: “It was really special to hear how my work was touched, shaped and carried by so many hands across borders: by the fantastic translator, the German actors, the technicians and the organizers. It was an honour to be able to pass ‘Mater’ on, and to see it for the first time as an outsider, as a stranger, or as an old friend."

Translator Lisa Mensing: “I found it truly wonderful to see how my translation of ‘Mater’ was brought to life by the ensemble at Theater Aachen. I believe the audience really enjoyed the refreshing Flemish scripts. The festival was a great opportunity to bring people from the theatrical profession and lovers of theatre into contact with each other. I hope the festival becomes a regular event!"