Scenographies of the Everyday in Contemporary German Theatre – Anna Langhoff and Sasha Waltz Restage the Family Drama

Abstract

This article investigates what it means to move beyond the text in two works-Anna Langhoff's Frieden Frieden (Peace Peace) (1997) and Sasha Waltz and Guests' Allee der Kosmonauten (Avenue of the Cosmonauts) (1996, 1997, 2000)-chosen for the way they show how contemporary dramatic theatre and non-text based Tanztheater alike exemplify new directions in scenography. Through a focus on mise en scene, particularly scenography, movement and sound, the article will look 'beyond the text' to the performative, visual and aural image-making in these two productions as they shed light on tensions and debates in post-reunification Germany. The works are analysed as examples of a noticeable trend in 199..