Being Political in German Theatre and Performance: Anna Langhoff and Christoph Schingensief

Abstract

Anna Langhoff and Christoph Schlingensief are two contemporary theatre makers who sit at opposite ends of the dramatic/postdramatic theatre divide. In that both artists see themselves as critics of western neoliberalism, their different approaches to theatre and performance invite a comparative study of ‘being political’. Langhoff’s neorealist plays and Schlingensief’s performance events both demonstrate the limits of liberal society’s capacity to deal with complex social problems. But how effective is each after the event? The paper uses Han Thiess Lehmann’s study of postdramatic theatre to compare the two performance styles.The conference was sponsored by A.D.S.A., the Department of Performance Studies, the School of Letters, Arts and Media, and the Faculty of Arts of the University of Sydney