Chris Dercon in Istanbul
A shitstorm is threatening to envelop Chris Dercon, the incoming director of the Volksbühne Berlin. In an open letter addressed to the Berlin Senate and culture minister Monika Grütters, the current director, Frank Castorf along with over 200 employees including well-known actors and the playwright Rene Pollesch protest Dercon’s proposed changes. The incoming director intends to expand the programme to include dance, electronic arts and music, which the incumbents criticise as disrupting the ideological traditions of the popular theatre, which was founded over 100 years ago. The Volksbühne is to lose its focus on traditional theatrical forms in favour of a ‘polyglot approach’.
Castorf and his co-signees fear that the change in direction will irreversibly neutralise the political and artistic traditions of the Volksbühne, introducing a commercially driven mass cultural agenda. They call upon Berlin politicians to preserve the idiosyncratic approach to programming which has brought the Volksbühne global acclaim.
Chris Dercon has yet to comment.