Über Grenzen (UA)

Identity originates between dissociation and a sense of belonging. How do young people today establish their identities? A practise that claims an inseparable connection between cultural identity and national origins seems to have little to offer in times of a maximally interconnected and globalized world. For young people, these seemingly linked parameters have less and less relevance. They see themselves as global natives and as members of peer groups that communicate world-wide, with no need for either geographical or national borders. All the more, this young generation is aware of the conflict between an awareness of freedom and the demand for mobility on the one side, and a reawakening of a hermetic concept of origins on the other. And what about the older generation who grew up in a different Europe – how are they faring in their individual search for identity?

In a joint process with author David Lindemann and director Yves Hinrichs, actors from the theatre’s company and young people from the city will use this devised theatre project created for Schauspiel Leipzig to deal with boundaries and open borders in their own biographies and ask themselves: Is this a question of fear or of love?

David Lindemann’s first play “Koala Lumpur” received the authors’ award of the Berlin Theatertreffen. His following plays were premiered at theatres like Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin, Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin and the Burgtheater in Vienna. He adapted and directed many of them for the national radio channel Deutschlandradio Kultur. David Lindemann’s work has been presented at the Theatertreffen’s Stückemarkt, at Heidelberger Stückemarkt and Autorentheatertage of Deutsches Theater Berlin. Opening and embedding his writing process into a co-operative process with the actors is becoming a more and more essential part of his work:

    “For me personally, the singularity of a devised project lies in the close juxtaposition of writing and observing. As an author, I often have to shift for myself, taking inspiration mainly from my own experience. When I enter upon a devised project, something else takes centre stage: other people, other stories, other ways of talking and thinking. I would describe my own contribution to such a collaboration process as participating observation. By getting to know the actors before writing for them, I give them an opportunity to recognise themselves in the later text.”

Yves Hinrichs is the director of Schauspiel Leipzig’s young people’s theatre club “Sorry, eh!”. The theatre club’s productions “Frozen (Eisrauschen)”, “Never Ever Disconnected” (based on Falk Richter) or “Wunderland” (based on Gesine Danckwart) have been presented at several festivals, among them Theatertreffen der Jugend Berlin, the German national contest of young people’s theatre clubs and the Swiss Theatertreffen der Jugend, all in 2016.