This crisis is just not normal

Between the Theatre-Biennales 2008 and 2010 there was a financial crisis. Our governments were only able to halt it by pumping billions of the tax payers’ money into the banks. That is like telling people: “You have to help out your employers if you don’t want to end up living on the street.” Normally, that would be called extortion. But this crisis is just not normal.

I am the last person to pine for the 1970s with nostalgic longing. I am convinced that the world is better off today than it was then. So I also do not miss the political theatre of that time.

What I do miss is the “barometer function” of theatre. The way it would pick up on the vibrations of society and bring them to the stage. The theatre of today is more self-absorbed. The “mirror of society” has become a makeup table.

Hopefully the Theatre-Biennale 2010 will prove me wrong.