(All photos: Astra Zoldnere)
On June 10, 2025, the festival for new Czech theatre Ein Stück: Tschechien opened with a formal reception at Theater unterm Dach. Afterwards, we presented a performance of Abgrund (Czech title:Propast), a production by the Prague theatre A studio Rubín.
Since 2014, the festival has been presenting Czech productions, focussing on new plays, and introduces contemporary plays translated into German in staged readings. Despite the problematic situation in the cultural funding, we once again managed to offer two festival days at the Theater unterm Dach in June.
With the opening ceremony, the festival also commemorated an important anniversary in German-Czech relations. Exactly 30 years ago, on 10 June 1995, the twinning agreement between Berlin and Prague was signed in order to support and intensify relations between the two cities. The guest speakers of the evening – Georg Klußmann, Head of Protocol of the State of Berlin and Head of the International Affairs and Protocol Department of the Berlin Senate Chancellery, and Zuzana Hocková, Head of the International Relations Department of the Municipality of the capital city of Prague – also remembered this. Both emphasised the importance of relations between the two capitals of the neighbouring countries Germany and the Czech Republic and recalled significant activities of this city partnership, e.g. the establishment of the Comenius Garden Foundation in Berlin Rixdorf. Today, the Comenius Garden is primarily a communal education and integration project for the diverse Neukölln community. At the same time, he referred to the Bohemian Brothers who were expelled from Bohemia around 1750 and found a new home in Berlin. Finally, Thorsten Schlenger, director of the Theater unterm Dach, recalled past guest performances of the festival in his theatre and the special encounters with contemporary Czech theatre, which for him provides important impulses for the Berlin cultural landscape.
The production invited this year – Abgrund by A studio Rubín – addresses the current topic of the impact of the climate crisis on the younger generation. It is about attachment anxiety and fear of the future as well as survival strategies and desires.
We opted for simultaneous interpretation via headphones by Maira Neubert to enable the audience to better follow the action on stage instead of reading surtitles. During the performance, the actor Šimon Krupa improvised to spontaneously ask the audience for interpreting support. (Translation: Barbora Schnelle)
After the show, the artists from Prague and the audience discussed how to stage aspects of the climate crisis, about the role of art in current sociopolitical debates, how to perform for an audience that does not speak Czech, and about the working conditions in the theatre community in the Czech Republic.
From the left: Lucie Ferenzová (director), … and, far right, Barbora Schnelle (moderator).
The festival Ein Stück: Tschechien 2025 is an event by Drama Panorama: Forum für Übersetzung und Theater e. V. in cooperation with the Czech Center Berlin and the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Berlin. Funded by the Governing Mayor of Berlin – Senate Chancellery, the German-Czech Future Fund and Dilia z. s. Supported by Theater unterm Dach.
We would like to thank all partners and supporters who made this evening possible.
Note our next festival date on 29 June – we will present three contemporary Czech plays in staged readings. We are very much looking forward to seeing you there!
