In a new regular feature, we preview the top picks this summer for English-language theatre in Germany.

Though English-language theatre in Germany is rather sparse this season, there are still plenty of highlights, from classics to more contemporary pieces. A good variety of different works is available at the 62nd annual installment of the Recklinghausen Theater Festival, where 49 different performances are being given, with the land of opportunity as their theme. Hollywood stars such as Kevin Spacey, Jeff Goldblum and Cate Blanchett are also playing. For further US-themed entertainment, don't miss English Theatre Berlin's American Season, beginning in early July with Orpheus Descending by Tennessee Williams and continuing with work from new American playwrights.

A highlight at Schaubuehne is Antoine Chekhov's classic The Cherry Orchard, on the difficulties of a proud but financially inept aristocratic family attempting to save their estate from being sold off for debt. Though the play is already renowned in its own right, there are claims that director Falk Richter has given the piece new life.

Lovers of classics may also be interested in the performance of Romeo and Juliet at the English Theatre in Frankfurt, though those looking for something fresh may  fancy Deathtrap, which blurs the line between murder fiction and simple murder. And A.R Gurney loves should check out the Hamburg Player's production of The Dining Room.

Recklinghausen Theater Festivals

May 1-June 15

Tickets:  €5 to €31

 E-Mail: kartenstelle@ruhrfestspiele.de

This year's 62nd Recklinghausen Theater Festivals are dedicated to the land of opportunity. It pays tribute to the fact that the US, a relatively young nation, has developed a theatre culture second to none.
America's modern theatre culture began right after the First World War with Eugene O`Neill, soon followed by Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Thornton Wilder: playwrights that the Germans only got to know in the 1950s and 1960s. They dealt with American themes and problems that were similar to those in Germany. But the milieus they took place in seemed strange to Germans - while at the same time exciting.
Where is America? In the west, from our point of view. But in 2008, a little bit of it is in Recklinghausen too, because the writers and artists from this equally fascinating and paradoxical land are present everywhere in these theatre festivals - a program of 49 performances in all.

BERLIN

English Theatre Berlin

http://www.etberlin.de/

Poetry reading by Matthew Sweeney and Jag Wagner
May 27
Matthew Sweeney will read from his works and Jan Wagner will read some of his translations of Sweeney´s poems that have just been published by Berlin-Verlag under the title "Rosa Milch". Matthew Sweeney´s latest book is "Black Moon", published by Jonathan Cape in 2007. He  has published numerous poetry collections for adults and children.

American Season

In honour of the July opening of the new U.S Embassy in Berlin and the presidential elections in November, English Theatre Berlin will make American theatre the focal point throughout its first season in the new venue, starting with Orpheus Descending. Amongst others we will present two World Premieres of new plays by American playwrights living in Berlin: American Tet by Lydia Stryk plus-as a co-production with the 7 Stages Theater in Atlanta, Georgia -The Extremists by C. J. Hopkins. In March 2009 Priscilla Be will direct a production of the Pulitzer-Prize winning drama, Three Tall Women, by one of America´s greatest living playwrights, Edward Albee.

Orpheus descending by Tennessee Williams, directed by Günther Grosser

July 1-5/ 8-12/ 15-19 

Two River County, a small town in the deep South of the USA, where death, sex and disaster are the topics of everyday gossip, where bigotry and racism are boiling very close to the surface. Here they all sit: Jabe, the dying patriarch and his
frustrated wife, Lady; Beulah and Dolly, the town gossips; Carol, the black sheep of the town's richest family. And then, in walks Snakeskin Val Xavier, a travelling musician from New Orleans, bringing life into a house
 --------------------------
 Schaubuehne

http://english-theatre.org/

Deathtrap by Ira Levin

April 17-June 1
Sidney Bruhl needs a killer idea. Once the toast of Broadway, his plays were masterpieces of the murder genre, but it’s been a while since he had a major hit. When creative writing student Clifford Anderson posts Bruhl a brilliant script, the desperate writer sees a lethal opportunity. Plausible enough. But look again. This perfect plot is about to bend, to spiral, to spin totally out of control. Will fatal fiction become shockingly fatal fact and will Myra, Sidney’s wife, be able to withstand the horror saturating her household?

Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

June 8-18
Through the hate of warring factions, in defiance of their families and in secrecy from their closest friends, a young couple risk all they have to be together. Romeo and Juliet, one of Shakespeare’s most thrilling and popular plays, confronts each new generation with its tragic ardour and force.

http://www.festfrankfurt.org/

Nobody's Perfect by Simon Williams
April 3 - June 7

Harriet's publishing house will publish only novels penned by women. So Leonard, a failed writer and recently divorced, sends her one of his manuscripts under a woman's name. Surprisingly, Harriet offers to publish his book but insists on meeting him personally to discuss the terms. Can Leonard convince Harriet that he is a woman? And can he trust his streetwise daughter and rascally father to do their part in the masquerade? His problems are made worse when he falls hopelessly in love with Harriet. First performed in the UK in 1998, this romantic comedy, bordering on farce, has been widely praised for its hilarious plot and lovable characters.

The Dining Room by A.R. Gurney

June 4-14
Dining room stories from over 12 different, upper middle-class American homes all take place one after another in just one room with an all-important dining table. Actors each play up to ten different roles as guests or family members of all different ages throughout the play, creating a mosaic of unconnected dining room snapshot scenes: An elderly woman cannot recognize her own sons at Thanksgiving dinner. A children's birthday party is the backdrop to an adulterous affair. Teenage girls steal their parents' liquor to drink around the table undisturbed. A moralizing father lectures his impressionable young son on politics, manners and grammar at breakfast. The dining room is the place where these scenes overlap and flow swiftly on from each other, leaving the audience with many touching, funny and sometimes unforgettably rueful moments.

May 2008