In a very informal atmosphere, we will talk about what is currently discussed off the record in Polish and German theatre.

The official narrative of contemporary European theatre – the one expressed in performances, interviews, statements, manifestos and polemics – is one thing. We know it, we have access to it. But alongside it, there is another story: whispered, hidden, dispersed.
 

What is this story? What are we not saying openly in the theatre world today, even though we very much want to say it at all? What do we talk about in theatre buffets, what excites us during rehearsal breaks, what topics surface immediately at post-premiere gatherings? What do we complain about when we call or message each other?

These are the backstage anxieties of the theatre community: what are we afraid of? What looms over theatre, what is approaching? A Polish, German and European perspective.

It could be many things: the lack of economic stability for theatre workers, political and generational divisions, the cost and purpose of therapy, the point of talking to the audience, the quality of internal debate. The powers and powerlessness of contemporary theatre.

Do we complain about administrators or employees? Are we irritated by criticism or politics? In recent years we have gotten used to two wars, a reality increasingly tinged with extremism, and the exhausting work of trying to fix the theatre from within, searching for ways of coexistence between different generations of artists and audiences. But does all this still preoccupy us in our everyday practice?

Years of theatrical work by Matthias Lilienthal and Bartosz Szydłowski have created around them a specific web of professional relations. They now sit in this web, sensing even the slightest tremors. Let them tell us what vibrates within us, what moves, and why.

Saturday, December 6, 11:30 AM, Bunkier Sztuki
Hosted by Łukasz Drewniak
The meeting will be held with Polish–English translation.