Die Fruchtfliege

This summer, as part of its continued survey of the theatre scene of Berlin, one of the most vibrant theatre capitals of the world, the Athens Festival is inviting the renowned Volksbühne company to make its début in Greece with three extraordinary productions.

This historic theatre, established in Berlin in 1914, owes its name (Volksbühne means People’s Theatre) to its connections with a grass-roots movement for the creation of a theatre for the masses.

The company’s particular aesthetic has been shaped by many over the years, but particularly influential were the left-wing Erwin Piscator in the 1920s, and Benno Besson, one of the most important directors of the Berliner Ensemble, in the 1970s.

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Frank Castorf became the artistic director and enfant terrible of this theatre on Rosa Luxemburg Square, in (what was formerly East) Berlin. The works of the Swiss director Christoph Marthaler, who gives glorious expression to the concepts of musicality and chorality, enjoy unparalleled prominence in the company’s activities. The revolutionary productions of the Volksbühne are élitist, eccentric and populist in equal measure.

This Berlin theatre company’s three performances will serve as the Athenian public’s first introduction to the work of three leading directors, the aforementioned Castorf and Marthaler, and the veteran Dimiter Gotscheff.

In German with Greek surtitles.