Rimini Protokoll is a German theatre group founded in 2000 by Helgard Haug, Stefan Kaegi, and Daniel Wetzel. They create stage plays,
interventions, scenic installations, and radio plays. Many of their works are characterized by interactivity and a playful use of technology.
In 2008, they were awarded the
Europe Theatre Prize
The Europe Theatre Prize ''(Premio Europa per il Teatro)'' is an award of the European Commission for a personality who has "contributed to the realisation of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peo ...
.
Background
The three met while attending the
Institute for Applied Theatre Studies
The Institute for Applied Theatre Studies (Angewandte Theaterwissenschaft, ATW) is part of the Justus Liebig University Gießen. It offers three different degree programs: a three-year Bachelor's program, Applied Theatre Studies, and two two-year ...
at
University of Giessen
University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...
, Hesse, Germany. They are a team of authors, directors, and designers of sound, stage, and videos, who have been working together since 1999.
They have been invited four times to
Berliner Theatertreffen
The Berliner Theatertreffen (''Theatertreffen'' : neologism literally meaning "theatre encounter" or "theatre meeting"
) is a two-week long theatre festival occurring yearly in May in Berlin, Germany. It is a product of the Berliner Festspiele ...
, Germany's most important festival featuring the 10 best performances of Austria, Switzerland, and Germany. Since 2003, their projects also take place within the framework of big national theatres like Vienna's
Burgtheater
The Burgtheater (literally:"Castle Theater" but alternatively translated as "(Imperial) Court Theater"), originally known as '' K.K. Theater an der Burg'', then until 1918 as the ''K.K. Hofburgtheater'', is the national theater of Austria in V ...
or the
Schauspielhaus in Zurich, as well as international festivals.
Method
Rimini Protokoll are often described as the inventors of a new form of documentary theatre, using performers who are not professional actors but rather experts or specialists in their particular spheres of life — professionals of a theatre of the real world. So, instead of presenting actors performing characters as parts of drama texts, they present people whom they find through elaborate research and casting procedures and with whom they develop theatre performances according to their abilities and skills in order to convincingly and strongly present themselves in front of national theatre crowds.
''Call Cutta'', one of their earlier works, was based on outsourcing: The performers or 'experts', who were employees of a call center, were located in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...
, Kolkata, India, providing the audience in Berlin with individual cellphone performances, with each call center agent guiding just one spectator solely through the remote maze of lanes of Kreuzberg, Berlin, narrating the story of
Subhas Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose ( ; 23 January 1897 – 18 August 1945
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*) was an Indian nationalist whose defiance of British authority in India made him a hero among Indians, but his wartime alliances with Nazi Germany and Imperi ...
, an Indian revolutionarist freedom fighter.
Awards and recognition
* 2008 —
Europe Theatre Prize
The Europe Theatre Prize ''(Premio Europa per il Teatro)'' is an award of the European Commission for a personality who has "contributed to the realisation of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peo ...
– Europe Prize Theatrical Realities,
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
Literature
* Malzacher, Florian and Miriam Dreysse. ''Experts of the Eyeryday: The Theatre of Rimini Protokoll''. Alexander Verlag, Berlin 2008.
References
External links
*
Rimini Protokoll channel on vimeo.com
{{Authority control
German performance artists