Orient Express
July 20, 2009
The freight rail terminal down on the banks of Stuttgart's River Neckar was an unlikely venue for a European theater summit - but that's what it was when the Orient Express pulled into Platform One last week.
Stuttgart was the last destination on a theatrical odyssey from the Turkish capital of Ankara - through Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia to Germany.
Theater without borders
The walls of the train folded down, turning what looked like a regular train-car into a full-size stage. Over the past two months, six theater companies from the six nations on the Orient Express westward route staged brand new plays in rail station venues across the continent.
According to Christian Holtzhauer, the project director, performing in a train station was initially an unpleasant experience for the actors, particularly considering they were rehearsing outside in 40 degree Celsius weather with no shade.
"Our first day in the Ankara station was a real shock to us," he said. "Trains were moving in and out of the station, people were running to catch their trains, we felt really lost and asked ourselves, 'What are we doing here? We want to go home to our theater and perform there.'"
But the show had to go on. The six participating companies gave 40 performances for around 10,000 people on their two-month journey across Europe.
Each company had commissioned new plays focusing on migration, identity and roots, as the European Union aims to tear down traditional national borders on the old continent.
Teddy and Tiger on tour
On the opening night in Stuttgart in mid-July, it was curtains up - or train flaps down - on host nation Germany's production "80 Days and 80 Nights." The adult fairy tale is about a teddy bear and a tiger made in Romania who were looking for a loving home in Germany.
On their journey, they encounter a host of misconceptions Europeans sometimes have about each other: the "corrupt and volatile" Slavs, the "lazy, cantankerous" Turks, the "humourless, workaholic" Germans. Audiences loved the hilarious parody on prejudice.
The farther east the plays originated, the more reflective and melancholic they tended to be.
The Turkish State Theater's "EX-PRESS" emerged as the absolute highlight of the Orient Express Festival in Stuttgart. Far removed from comedy and cabaret, "EX-PRESS" is pure theater - subtle, sad, sentimental and immaculately staged.
Engulfed in dry-ice fog, the train sides open to reveal a wagon full of old leather suitcases filled with mementos from the lives of its six passengers, all of them escaping family feud, abuse, war and poverty to a new life in the West.
Here, as in all the festival productions, the audience saw the play in the original language with a scant translation running across a small screen above the stage. However, that didn't detract from the fascination the play exuded. The actors' astounding stage presence coupled with the director's use of music and choreography readily overcame any potential language barrier.
Europe on the couch
Between Germany's biting comedy and Turkey's melodrama, the festival offered an exciting mixed bag of European theaters tackling the continent's contemporary identity crux.
Slovenia's contribution, "The Titanic Orchestra," focuses on homelessness in all senses of the word. Romania's "Occident Express," looks at people who've found a home of sorts - in a train station; prostitutes, beggars, emigrants. All of them are waiting in vain for the train that will take them to the fulfilment of their dreams.
Serbia's production "As If" features an affair between two students, one from western, the other from eastern Europe. The pair discovers cultural differences that strain their relationship.
Croatia, in "Seven Days in Zagreb" also took up the topic of frustrated young people growing up on a continent where travel, success and wealth are within everyone's reach - at least on paper.
Still, what may sound like a recipe for a depressing night out, was spiced with a liberal helping of humor and a ubiquitous sense of the fact that, despite its current teething problems, Europe is heading toward every more unity and integration.
Rolling theatrical laboratory
The European Theater Convention (ETC), one of the main sponsors of the project, described the Orient Express as a "rolling theatrical laboratory" - an experiment for performers and audience alike.
The train was both home and workplace for the actors and directors for over two months.
"When you're on a train together for so long, you start talking together in a far deeper way than you do at a normal festival," said Holtzhauer. "You get beyond talking and start understanding each other."
For ETC President Jean-Claude Berutti, the most rewarding aspect of the Orient Express experiment was that, in the course of its transcontinental tour, it opened up theater to many for the very first time.
"It was so great to see people discover theatre and actors in a train station, it was a great experience for me and a great experience for the audience."
Author: Peggy Graham
Editor: Kate Bowen