Schauspielhaus Zurich: Tired of postmodernism

opinion Playhouse Zurich

Tired of postmodernism

Stand: 14.11.2022 | Reading time: 2 minutes

Zurich directors: Stemann, von Blomberg

Quelle: pa/KEYSTONE/GAETAN BALLY

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The Zurich Schauspielhaus, one of the most important German-language theatres, is facing accusations that its wokes program is driving away its regular audience. But the aim is to attract a young, committed audience. Zurich is not the only one with this problem.

Dhe Schauspielhaus Zurich is experiencing troubled times. Nicolas Stemann and Benjamin von Blomberg took over the management of the renowned theater in 2019, followed by an ambitious opening that was abruptly stopped by the closures the following year. As everywhere, it is difficult to win back the audience.

But Stemann and von Blomberg, who came from the Munich Kammerspiele under Matthias Lilienthal, are not only accused of low capacity utilization, but also of the programme. Politicians and the media say it is “woker mush” and a “sectarian social experiment”. Something similar was judged in Munich about Lilienthal.

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Seen from a distance, the case in Zurich is different. With Maja Beckmann, Sebastian Rudolph and Wiebke Mollenhauer, the new directors have lured the highest quality of acting to Zurich, with Christopher Rüping and Milo Rau two of the hottest directors of the present stage production, with Johan Simons one of the finest, Yana Ross stands for the experimental, with Suna Gürler young people from Switzerland are being developed. Last but not least, there is Stemann himself, who will premiere Elfriede Jelinek in December, not his first. Classic to contemporary, everything included, just not a mush. And shouldn’t theater always be an experiment, room for uninhibited imagination, even if it provokes?

The difficulties one has in Zurich concern the theater as such. More and more often, the postmodern aesthetic leads to exhaustion in the audience. Changes are imminent, they require criticism that goes beyond catchphrases such as “woke” and even formulates aesthetic claims. The quality is there in Zurich. Other theaters would scramble for such a program.

Even in the past, the city had been at odds with theater innovators. Dürrenmatt was rejected. Peter Stein fled the city. The rest of the story is well known: Stein founded the world-famous Schaubühne in Berlin.