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Rebelling against tradition
Anja Tuckermann
The development of theatre for children and young adults in Germany from 1970 until today from the point of view of a playwright
Post-war German society cannot be seen without its historical background.
The stratified hierarchy of the German empire was followed by the Weimar Republic where people searched for freedom and experimented with personal life styles. And where many people were unemployed and poor.
This was followed by the dictatorship of the National Socialist Party and untold crimes under a murderous regime. At least two decades after the war were characterized by feelings of guilt, by denial of guilt, by covering up the past, by the effort to survive and make a new start economically, by turning a blind eye to politics and, for some people, by turning towards religion; above all, this period was characterized by silence.
Germany was definitely divided at the end of the war when the West and following this the East German state were founded in 1949. Thus, also the artists and the theatres were separated from each other and took different directions and development. The more so when the border was closed and fortified in 1961 and the wall was built through the city of Berlin and all around West-Berlin. From then on West Berlin was an island surrounded by a wall; now, in addition to West and East Germany, there was a third way in Germany of seeing the world and presenting it on stage. After the war two thirds of all theatres were in ruins. The ensembles were dispersed all over the country. Nevertheless in Berlin the first premiere took place only three and a half weeks after the end of the war. A year later, there were 200 places in the ruins where plays were performed. Some critics said that art had saved people‘s lives after the war.
In the following 25 years children‘s theatre in West Germany and West Berlin was not considered important, had little money, equipment and staff. Only in five major cities were people involved in children‘s theatre. Their personal involvement made this possible. The repertoire consisted mostly of fairy tales, adaptions of classic literature and traditional classic plays.
The development of children‘s theatre was considered much more important in East Germany. Only one year after the war the first state theatre for a young audience was founded in Leipzig. Five others followed. These theatres were given their own buildings with all necessary technical equipment, they had ensembles and performed fairy tales but also a lot of new contemporary plays. This blossoming of the theatre ended in the 1970s, when the state insisted that the children‘s theatre was to be used as a means of - state-directed - education.
Still, all the children who grew up in East German cities were able to enjoy theatre performances with their school classes.
Back to West Germany.
In the late 1960s, the new generation, at first especially students, rebelled against the silent continuation of ideas and concepts from the time of the Nazi regime. For example against the concept of loyalty to the authorities at all cost. Against old members of the Nazi party being in positions of responsibility again or even in the government.
The young generation wanted to know about the past, demanded openness, democracy, responsibility, and respect for the individual, including children. Private life was now considered political, too, so a lot of people investigated their own life conditons. There was a real and honest need in society to reform education and social structures.
A new kind of literature was published now - literature that was not told to children but took the point of view of children. A new publishing house exclusively for children‘s books was founded. The editor asked well-known writers to write for children, found new ones (like Christine Nöstlinger; Josef Guggenmoos) who became very famous, published yearbooks of children‘s literature, modern poetry, the books were carefully illustrated by artists. One book which showed the need and interest of that time became extraordinarily successful: It was the No Book (Hinterher ist man schlauer / Afterwards you‘re smarter), followed by books with titles like: So what? The Conflict Book, The Yes Book.
These books stressed the rights that were now accorded to children. That children can have their own point of view which could differ from the views of adults. That children have the right to say no even to adults. That obeying an order without considering whether it makes sense is not necessarily good. That children have the right to their own time and phantasies.
With the rising consciousness that our daily lives are affected by politics, some people sought to look at the inner structure of society and family life. The idea was: If you want to change society, you have to start with what you know.
A group of people who had a cabaret in Berlin turned to writing plays and performing them for children. They founded the children‘s theatre GRIPS (colloquial for ‚brains‘).
In 1970 I saw one of the first GRIPS plays about how children reject foolish prohibitions imposed on them by adults. They give a name to a box, Mugnog, and whenever they don‘t want to do what they are told, they say: But the Mugnog said, it is not neceassry. Or: it is different. A neighbor is alarmed and starts an anti-Mugnog campaign. In the end, the police, the military and the government chase the wooden box Mugnog and it is destroyed. But the children don‘t mind. They have found a piece of stovepipe. It is their new Mugnog.
Children’s theatre is a direct mirror of the condition of society. At all times, rebellion against tradition has begun like that: saying NO and So what?, with laughing, fantasy and presenting the absurdities.
Like many other children in the 1970s, I was fascinated. On stage I saw children who, with a lot of humour, were not too shy to contradict, to talk back to adults, children who had the courage to stand up for their own ideas. Of course there were some adults who didn‘t like this at all. And now we saw on stage that there could also be adults who wouldn‘t just shrug their shoulders, but who supported the children.
It was no problem for the audience that adult actors were playing children. They accepted this without question. At first the GRIPS actors weren‘t sure about it, so in an early piece they took over the roles of children only during the course of the play. The oldest actor asked the audience whether they would mind if he played the child. The children didn‘t mind.
This theatre sought to educate children and parents towards a society where each individual would take responsibility for their own decisions. Not only their plays were new, but also the way they were developed.
Another important theatre group was founded in those years : DIE ROTE GRÜTZE (the name of a red currant or raspberry jelly popular with children AND colloquially for ‚brains‘.) They developed plays in which they tried to investigate male/female roles, subjects as sexuality and violence. With these plays they tried to highlight individual and social problems, but always also show ways to deal with them. They brought up and discussed taboos, spoke openly about subjects people wouldn‘t normally speak about. Their first play was, of course, called: You don‘t speak about it (1973). A play about sexuality and how children are born. They had a big Mama figure, the children were allowed on the stage, could climb into the dark figure and, head first, they could come to the world, into the spotlight.
This sentence has become a well-knwon saying, even politicians use it regularly and don‘t know that it originated in a children‘s theatre. Not only did this expression enter society - the new form of intensive research has also influenced and changed all theatre work since then in the adult theatre.
Some of the ROTE GRÜTZE plays are still performed today all over Germany and abroad, some of the GRIPS plays are performed in other countries and languages as well.
These theatres, both of which exist to this day, changed the theatre scene in West Germany. Many more ensembles were formed, buildings were given to children‘s theatres. Other theatres founded youth clubs for young actors who still were pupils.
Some theatre groups played in schools, a lot of plays developed with the help of the young audience. The children‘s plays were shown on TV, were printed in books. The rebellion on stage in the 70s against old traditions of children‘s theatre and society made it possible that any subject, any problem could be spoken about on stage. The world was shown on stage, growing up with all its aspects, parents, schools, politics, unemployment, rich and poor countries, protection of the environment. All this with a lot of comedy, humour, music and entertainment.
Almost all the plays had in common that they showed the perspective of children and took sides with them. In the dramaturgy, there were certain basic patterns. Because of external conditions or problems the children experience conflicts with one another. Mutual interests are recognized, a solution is found by means of solidarity. Common reflection and action are part of this dramaturgic model.
In the late 80s the theatre-makers looked for another aesthetic involving phantastic elements in order to renounce the then traditional realistic way of developing plays.
They wanted enjoyable and pleasurable presentations, plays that were not so much based on daily life any more. This became something like an anti-GRIPS wave.
The theatre-makers were now searching for new developments, for their own ways and for the poetic. GRIPS and ROTE GRÜTZE had put such a mark on the landscape of children‘s theatre that people were divided: do it like GRIPS or unlike GRIPS. Of course, this division was connected with society. In the late 80s, people had expressed their opinions publicly, had been discussing, demonstrating for peace in the world, against nuclear weapons, there were hardly any taboos left, a lot of people just wanted to have fun and good stories. They didn‘t know what to rebel against any more.
A lot of plays from Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Italy were translated and performed in Germany which dealt mostly with children in the family, with daily life, love, puberty, school, secrets, fear of darkness, strange creatures, phantastic figures and fairy tales. Plays that show individuals rather than situations in society where children have to find their place and deal with it.
When the Wall and the border between East and West were opened, two different theatre scenes came together. In the East, authors and theatres had to work around the censorship imposed by the political auhorities; therefore, they used traditional material (stories, fairy tales) which they re-interpreted and tried to make relevant for their own present. And they had a rich and inventive scene of state-subsidized puppet theatre for children, something that didn‘t exist in West Germany.
My childhood and artistic development coincided with the big changes in German society and my writing was very much influenced by these changes.
In my books, I focus on German history, on violence and love, on tolerance and prejudices, the whole range of human behaviour; the realization that everyone, even young ones, can and should take responsibility for their decisions. And about how political changes and decisions influence and dominate private lives.
Having read one of my books, a GRIPS dramaturg asked me whether I wanted to work with them. Since then I have written 9 plays which have some aspects in common. Some plays with two languages, about traditions to learn from, about different cultures coming together.
My first play, in 1996, was ‚Asra - Die von Gegenüber‘ (‚Asra - The girl from the other side of the street‘), written for German and Bosnian actors who were refugees from Sarayevo, which at that time was under siege.
I went through the whole process from the idea to a play on stage under the GRIPS conditions. The play is the story of the girl Asra and her family who have fled from Sarayevo to Berlin and how she finds her way into a new life in a strange country.
First there was research about refugee children in Berlin, together with the dramaturg, some actors and the director. I wrote a synopsis. With these two components, the subject had to go through the „Gremium“. This institution, consisting of the two directors, two dramaturgs, two elder actors and three actors elected by the ensemble, decides the programme of the theatre. It voted for my play, so I started to write it, always considering the experiences of refugee children and of the Bosnian actors, and the views of experts.
While I was still writing the play, a composer started writing the music.
When the performance was rehearsed, there were a few public rehearsals, after which there were some changes again. After the premiere with a lot of adults in the audience had taken place, there was what the theatre calls the second premiere, the first performance for 400 children. Children are a very open-eyed and critical audience. When this second premiere went well, I knew, there would not be any more big changes to my play. The GRIPS dramaturgs go to the schools after the performances to analyse the play with the children, to hear their opinions. This way, GRIPS is always right on the pulse of contemporary reality.
My other plays are:
„Komm, wir knutschen“ (‚Come on, let‘s smooch‘) for very young children; it deals with love and jealousy and male/female roles.
„Ganz große Pause“ (‚A very long break‘) tells the story of two 14-year-olds who refuse to go to school. It was developed with a school class of that age. The kids worked in a creative writing workshop with me and in a theatre workshop with a GRIPS dramaturg. With that material I wrote the play.
For other theatres I wrote:
„Angst im Kopf“ (‚Fear in your head‘) with a dissolved story-line which develops in the audience‘s imagination. It is about violent young people, racism and violence in family/education.
„Maus liebt Kater“ (‚Mouse loves cat‘) speaks about a mouse which loves a cat that is abusing it until the mouse finally takes its children and runs away, leaving the cat.
What are the tendencies in German children‘s theatre today?
There is variety in every regard. Is it looking for traditions and using them for constructive new purposes? Is it still or again rebelling against traditions? Can it survive without rebelling?
There are 700 premieres per year, 50 % of the plays performed come from other countries and languages.
The ensembles work on a high quality level, a lot of the plays are in the repertoire, some plays are performed for many years.
Nowadays anything is possible: fairy tales, literary adaptions, classics, new plays. There is entertainment on a high level, but a tendency to prettify the world, to show idyllic situations, disregarding the larger contexts. The questions in society today are seldom dealt with, e.g. the demographic change towards a multicultural society with more and more children coming from families wirh an migrant background.
And what is new as well is that parents ask: What has my child learned in theatre? - as if it were a branch of school.
When I started working for GRIPS, it had founded a new tradtion and it seemed to be a dinosaur in the field of children‘s theatre. A dinosaur with a packed house, though.
But now, ten years later when people seem to pick up ideas here and there, try this or that, look for a big success in order to have an income and some security, GRIPS seems to be as close to the pulse as ever. Also because they take their audience seriously using theatre as a way of communicating with children in a way of life where communication between generations seems to be rare. The same is true for some other theatres, e.g. in Berlin: Theatre Strahl, Atze and Rote Grütze.
In form and style, with less money available for the productions, it is important for authors and theatres today to present to their young audiences different possibilities of directing their lives, and show real people instead of the ones on the TV screen. Today, children‘s theatres have young people perform with professional actors, present fairy tales nice and pretty again, design and present plays for children under 4 years of age, go to schools - to the audience, because the audience is not coming in big numbers to the theatres any more. Young people are looking for answers, for a way to rebel - but against what or whom in a world of machines?
Yet there seem to be some rules that are valid at any time: in children‘s theatre you always deal with the future; you can deal with any reality, but there has to be some hope. And you are usually - literally - very close to the audience. Children‘s theatre is theatre for an audience whose lives have just begun, who don‘t know any tradition, who don‘t claim to have seen everything already, who want to be shown good stories and bits and pieces of information about different ways to shape their lives, to look at society - a society which in spite of a seemingly unlimited variety is again showing signs of uniformity.
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