This fall, a heady mix of tragedy and comedy grace stages across the country.

In Berlin, Noël Coward's riotous play about two married women lusting after the same man, Fallen Angels, opens at the English Theatre Berlin (ETB).

In Frankfurt, a cast of lovable steelworkers/strip dancers strut their stuff in The English Theatre Frankfurt’s production of The Full Monty.

Meanwhile, two eccentric old men go head-to-head in the Internationales Theatre Frankfurt’s staging of the Neil Simon masterpiece The Odd Couple.

On the more serious side, the ETB’s highly enjoyable production of Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads is back for one more encore in November; famed director Thomas Ostemeier digs back into Ibsen with his staging of John Gabriel Borkmann at Berlin’s Schaubuehne; and Stanley Kowalski begins his hollering in The English Theatre Frankfurt’s A Streetcar Named Desire.


BERLIN

NO LIMITS International Theatre Festival

October 15 – 25, 2009
At the Kulturbrauerei, Ballhaus Ost, Segenskirche and Lychener Str. 20
www.no-limits-festival.de
   
For the fourth time now, Andreas Meder has organized the NO LIMITS theatre festival, a 10 day event that features companies in which mentally challenged artists play an important role and where disabled and non-disabled actors work together at a highly professional level. This year’s festival will present 18 groups from all over the world.  The festival opens with a performance by the Korean dancer and choreographer Namjin Kim that was choreographed with his handicapped brother. Later, artist and political activist Mat Fraser from the UK will deconstruct and inevitably reinterpret traditional definitions of beauty. And the UK Punk band Heavy Load unwittingly rediscover the true meaning of punk; with their film, concert and a political campaign, they declare that people with a learning disability have the right to stay up late and have some fun!

English Theatre Berlin    

http://www.etberlin.de/

Fallen Angels, or Waiting for Maurice by Noël Coward

Noël Coward's brilliant comedy about desperate housewives in London. Julia and Jane are old friends.

Both are comfortably married, both are embarking upon middle age with a little regret and both have a secret past: both have had an affair with a dashing Frenchman named Maurice. Now, Maurice is back in town – and with their husbands safely dispatched to the golf course, Julia and Jane embark upon an evening of alcohol-infused anticipation as they are torn between the realities of comfortable domesticity and their passionate memories of Maurice.

When it first opened in 1925, Coward’s play shocked the press, as two female characters were openly admitting to having a pre-marital affair with the same man.

Fri 25 September (Premiere) / Sat 26 / Wed 30 at 8 pm
Thur 1 October - Sun 4 / Tue 6 - Sun 10 at 8 pm   

The Stanzas Poetry Series with John Hartley Williams and Catherine Hales

In October, Stanzas welcomes two long-time Berlin residents: John Hartley Williams and Catherine Hales.  Both are established members of the Berlin poetry community as poets, educators, and translators.  Alistair Noon will guest host.

Wednesday October 14 at 8pm    

The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee
 
The controversial Tony Award winning play from one of America's greatest living playwrights. The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? is a rich, intelligent, radical and well-crafted play that questions and explores the limits of tolerance. In the play, a man is having an affair with a goat. Perceived values are transgressed and love and relationships become the casualties.

Oct 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 / Nov 1 / 12 / 13 / 14 at 8 pm

Talking Heads by Alan Bennett

In an article to celebrate his 75th birthday on May 9th, The Guardian called Alan Bennett "a national treasure." But Bennett, who just recently had a huge bestseller in Germany with his novella, The Uncommon Reader (Die souveräne Leserin), is more than that – he is one of Britain’s greatest writers. Period.
 
Talking Heads is a series of monologues, poignant yet hilarious pieces peeling back the veneer of respectability to revel in – and of course laugh at – the private foibles of everyday life. These tales of loneliness and eccentricity range from hilariously funny to bitingly satirical to poignantly reflective, sometimes all in the same monologue. Alan Bennett wrote the first six pieces in the mid 1980s for BBC-TV, where they became a huge success and received several prestigious awards. More than ten years later, another six monologues followed, and this time Alan Bennett confronted his protagonists with severer problems like murder, child molestation, or a husband who is into S/M. English Theatre Berlin presents three of the later pieces: The Outside Dog, Playing Sandwiches and Nights in the Gardens of Spain.

Check out Expatica's review of the play: Tales from the side of the stage: Alan Bennett’s ‘Talking Heads’

November 4 + 5 + 7 at 8pm / December 11 + 12 at 8pm

David Peace reads from his new novel Tokyo Year Zero

With Tokyo Year Zero, David Peace has turned his gaze towards Japan, his adopted home, and the crimes of a real-life serial killer whose murder of several young geishas terrorised bombed-out Tokyo in 1946. In some ways, the whisky-drinking, pill-popping Detective Minami is a crime-novel staple. It's Tokyo itself, a city caught between rebuilding and a shattered, medieval present, that brings this visceral, hard-boiled story to life. Amid the stagnant canals, gang bosses and smoky brothels, Peace has found an inspired setting for a dank, dark, startling book.

Ekkehard Knörer will host the reading.

Friday November 6 at 8pm     

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