Festival – Kassel 10.-18. April 2015
After the first „Theaterwahn“ (theatre mania) in April 2010 we were full of new ideas. We were inspired by encounters with other groups which gave us a new energy. During the rare moments of exchange between the participants it seemed like our guests created some good memories as well.
As the last festival was such a great experience for everyone with so much inspiration, why shouldn’t we organize another? There is a lot of work too and theatre groups addressing people with psychiatry and psychosis experiences are not that common. So it seems five years after the first „Theaterwahn“ in Kassel is the right time to recreate an interesting program and to gather some new ideas.
Theatre and mania sounds like a fitting match. Theatre pushes the boundaries to demonstrate the extremes of life, creating fantasy and manias. No one wants to see normality on a stage, unless the normality goes to the extreme.
In the last 25 years, in Europe and, in our case, especially in Germany, some theatre groups have been established. These groups are consistently offered to people with and without psychiatry and psychosis experiences, following a cultural-emancipatory approach.
Additionally, the 2015 festival aims to provide an opportunity for its guests and audience to see the interesting variety of comparable theatre productions.
To this occasion, the „Theater Chaosium“ from Kassel invites different ensembles from Germany and Europe.
All of these groups have a shared intention of wanting to base their work on an artistic aspect. The main point of their project is to use the resources every actor is contributing with which they develop together to an ensemble. -The assumed insanity becomes their strength, the assumed illness their power, with the capability to entertain and to have an effect on the audience.
The main location is the „Kulturhaus Dock 4“ in Kassel. There will also be a festival-café providing a platform for informal conversations between the different groups, as well as the audience. Furthermore, the groups will have the opportunity to join some workshops, which should allow another possibility for a dialogue between the participants. A small program for the afternoons will be accompanying the main part.
We welcome you to get involved and enthralled by the theatre mania!