Get existential or die trying: November on the Berlin stage

“*Kindheitsarchive*” by Caroline Guiela Nguyen. Photo: Giancarmo-Bresadola

Many say that November is the bleakest month in Berlin. One welcome distraction from the lengthening nights and ever-greyer days is an evening at the theatre. But if you are worried theatrical cheer will get in the way of stylish Hauptstadt angst, never fear: many of the plays on offer this autumn will get you questioning your purpose on this earth.

many of the plays on offer this autumn will get you questioning your purpose on this earth.

Take Schaubühne’s new premiere, Kindheitsarchive (Childhood Archives), a magical realist look at the trauma and moral conundrums presented by the phenomenon of international adoption. In this German premiere, French-Vietnamese playwright and director Caroline Guiela Nguyen gets to the heart of questions of identity. The production neatly juxtaposes a very real-world issue with a suitably theatrical concept and stage design. Those who love gritty French storytelling as much as Schaubühne intendant and director Thomas Ostermeier will also note with relish that Édouard Louis’s History of Violence and Virginie Despentes’s Vernon Subutex 2 are both returning there this November, providing more brooding matter for your autumn nights.

But it is not just the likes of Louis and Despentes bringing hot-button issues of gender, class and identity to the stages of frosty, dark Berlin. Dance school, theatre and community initiative Tanzfabrik are hosting the Feminist Futures Festival in Uferstudios as one step in a trans-Europe initiative that will then travel to Salzburg and Warsaw. The practitioners are not only there to perform their range of feminist dance pieces but will also be leading dance classes at the same time, as part of the Feminist School initiative that looks to examine different versions and experiences of feminism. Dance meets activism: bring comfortable shoes.

RambaZamba’s diverse and at times unexpected repertoire can be moving and fascinating.

Inclusivity – and the outrage of its absence – is also a theme across town at RambaZamba. This Prenzlauer Berg theatre is one of the venues for the NO LIMITS Festival with new theatre and movement productions that look at human identity, including a new take on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. RambaZamba will also be showing a pop opera based on Molière’s The Imaginary Invalid. If you’re yet to check out this semi-hidden gem of the Berlin theatre scene, these two productions each offer a great opportunity. Founded as a place for people with disabilities to create theatre together, RambaZamba’s diverse and at times unexpected repertoire can be moving and fascinating.

Over at Gorki, in-house director Yael Ronen – together with Orit Nahmias – has returned to her Israeli roots with Blood Moon Blues, a dark comedy about a mother-daughter relationship set on the banks of the Dead Sea. Father-son stories are ten-a-penny, and it is refreshing to have something new that does not shy away from both sexuality and family trauma while presenting female family relationships – and still manages to be funny. Ronen has achieved some of the best things on offer at Gorki over recent years, so this is not to be missed.

Solutions are unlikely to come out of this two-hour evening – but it is sure to increase your concerns about the desolate-looking future of our planet.

Finally, if your soul is still glowing a little too brightly after all that, take a trip down to Heimathafen Neukölln for the documentary theatre piece Die Klima-Monologe (The Climate Monologues). Writer-director Michael Ruf made an impact with his Mediterranean Monologues, an unflinching look at refugees and the atrocities taking place on Europe’s southern border. Now, he is turning to the issue of climate change and migration. Characters must decide between hunger and danger, between travelling and staying in increasingly unlivable homes. Ruf spoke to hundreds of people to craft this piece, and every performance will end with an audience discussion. Solutions are unlikely to come out of this two-hour evening – but it is sure to increase your concerns about the desolate-looking future of our planet. Oh well, at least it’s almost Christmas.