Theatre | stage design
Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin, 2017

Directed by Sebastian Baumgarten
Stage Design: Robert Lippok
Costumes: Jana Findeklee, Joki Tewes
Music: Stefan Schneider
Video: Hannah Dörr
Dramaturgie: Ludwig Haugk
With: Lea Draeger, Mateja Meded, Aleksandar Radenković, Taner Şahintürk, Dimitrij Schaad, Norbert Stöß, Thomas Wodianka, Till Wonka

Baumgarten’s work is always characterized by the use of different media, a line that connects to the epic theatre of Bertolt Brecht. In Dickicht Baumgarten experiments with the epic form: the whole piece was produced as a film and put on stage in one abstract space. With this formal experiment Baumgarten radicalises Brecht’s distancing effect.

»The separation of picture and sound is as virtuoso as it is astonishing. On the one hand, it condenses the conflicts and, on the other, prevents identification with the characters, in the sense of Brecht and his command: »Don’t stare that romantically!« The goal of Brecht’s alienation effect – that the actors as well as the audience are thinking and not merely empathising – is emphasised by Baumgarten with contemporary means. The ensemble follows him brilliantly, but remains cool in all its passions and euphoric in all its clarity of mind.« (FAZ, Irene Bazinger)