A Streetcar Named Desire. Theatre in Mexico

Starting in May 2016, Germany presented a number of artistic projects in Mexico, and Mexico did the same in Germany. As part of this bilateral collaboration, a festival has been staged at the Münchner Kammerspiele with a focus on the performing arts. The Kammerspiele invited several independent Mexican theatre groups to perform their current productions, some of which have been European premieres. In addition to hosting guest performances by established groups like Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol or Antonia Salinas, the festival wished to especially support young directors and performers who were staging their very first productions like Alberto Villareal and Laura Uribe or Mariana Villegas and Lukas Avendano. With its focus on Mexico, the festival spotlighted a region which is characterised by a strong disparity of wealth between the north and south and where exodus and migration play a central role. The highlight of the festival has been a production by the Mexican director Ángel Hernández which explored the themes of exodus and migration in a European context. In Mexico, his works are widely regarded as a new form of political theatre. Using the means and ends of art, he attempts to reclaim and revitalise spaces and venues which have been damaged or even destroyed by organised crime. With his featured intervention at the festival, he continued many years of artistic work with labour migrants in freight trains, posing the question of how the situation along the borders of Europe is comparable to that along the borders of the United States.

Curators: Christoph Gurk, Ilona Goyenche, Matthias Lilienthal, Anne Schulz
Artists: Ángel Hernández Arreola (MX), Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol (MX), Gabino Rodriguez (MX), Marianna Villegas (MX), Pollyester and others