The current economic crisis may lead to cuts in arts funding. However, Stuart Marlow argues that certain arts projects in Stuttgart should be spared the axe.

As the curtain for Act One of the global finance fiasco closes, nobody in the arts is really looking forward to Act Two. Theatres in Baden Württemberg, along with many other subsidised arts centres, face 2009 with a certain degree of trepidation. The sixty four billion dollar question is “where and when will the big cuts fall?” Not only that, most of the main private sponsors of the arts are cutting their expenditure. In addition, with unemployment and short-term work on the increase, a visit to the theatre is becoming a more expensive luxury.

In Stuttgart, the final 2008 plenary session of the arts council was held in December 2008 to welcome the new chief arts officer, Susanne Laugwitz-Aulbach, whose experience in festival promotion proved to be a key factor in her appointment. This may well prove to be a prudent gesture. The established performing arts scene certainly needs a major shake-up. The main targets for the looming cuts will inevitably be the subsidised theatre venues, with regular ensembles, demanding repertory schedules, and high maintenance costs.

Such overheads are already proving hard to reconcile with the harsh realities of reduced arts funding. Often being dependent on these venues, the future of foreign language theatre – including, of course, English theatre – with its more specific pool of potential audiences, hangs very much in the balance.

Positive signals
The Tri-bühne Theatre, having just staged one of Stuttgart’s most important intercultural events, SETT (Stuttgart-European-Theatre), is sending out a positive signal on the shape of things to come. SETT is a theatrical feast which equals anything you may see in London, Berlin or Paris. The difference is the Tri-Bühne festival is certainly both more affordable and more accessible. The week-long 2008 event included big name Afro-European productions such as Peter Brook’s staging of Athol Fugard’s South African play, “Sizwe Bansi is Dead”, and Henning Mankell’s drama “Nora’s Daughters”.

The fact that the 16-day Stuttgart festival was practically booked out is concrete proof that there has been no lapse in the level of interest in foreign language theatre. Festival events like SETT must surely be preferable to adopting crowd pulling strategies, such as staging popular mainstream entertainment, which was never really intended to be the main role of the subsidised arts centres.

Tri-Bühne press officer Stefan Kirchknopf is in no doubt as to the value of staging quality drama within an international festival context. “It is once again very rewarding, after what is now our ninth festival in Stuttgart, to see just how strong the interest in foreign language productions is,” says Kirchknopf. “The biannual challenges involved in getting this event off the ground and keeping it running have given our small team an energetic push in the right direction.”

Subtitling plays
The key challenge in devising SETT is to draw in audiences willing to sit through a ninety minute play in a foreign language. Artistic Director Edith Körber has faced this challenge by installing a subtitle screen as the “most pragmatic option”. This year’s reaction to those performances, where gesture, movement and facial expression form the central thrust of the dramatic action, indicates that the level of distraction from reading projected sub-titles was minimal. Potentially the most complex demand on the spectator’s concentration was the prize winning Hungarian production of Sophocles’ “The Trachiniae” and a Czech version of Christopher Hampton’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses”.

Whereas Péter Gothár’s powerful and original use of music, gesture and stage presentation almost obviated the need for dialogue, the complex rhetoric of “Les Liaisons” was more taxing on the audience’s ability to read and watch the action simultaneously. On the whole, however, most people seemed to think that the formula worked very well. Cultural studies researcher Annette Rukwied summed up the general response: “Of course with the use of subtitles there is bound to be some distraction. But for the privilege of being able to see such a wide range of excellent theatre in Stuttgart, it is a price definitely worth paying for. SETT is a must for theatre lovers.”

Mankell on stage
It was a delight to watch "Nora's Daughters", which rounded off the festival. It is a play written by Swedish author Henning Mankell, which premiered in Maputo, Mozambique in November 2006. Henning Mankell, a stalwart supporter of the Tri-Bühne project, focuses on three sisters gathering at their mother Nora’s graveside 10 years after her death. The character of Nora refers back to the central figure in Henrik Ibsen’s key play "A Doll's House", who breaks all social conventions in the last scene by deserting her family in order to redefine her own identity. Combining this motif with elements of traditional African problem plays, Mankell, working with the Teatro Avenida, has produced a charming and ironic look at post-colonialism and gender conflicts in Mozambique today.

It is vital in times of increasing social tension and xenophobia that plays like "Nora's Daughters" find a regular slot in Stuttgart’s cultural calendar.

If cuts in arts budgets nationwide are signalling the end of an era, valuable projects like SETT, which generate impressive audience figures and fulfil Stuttgart’s multi-ethnic political initiatives, must be given high priority.

Photo: A scene from “Nora’s Daughters”. (Courtesy of: www.sett-festival.eu)