Europe Ensemble

The Staatstheater Stuttgart has created a joint European ensemble together with the Nowy Teatr in Warsaw and the Zagreb Youth Theatre. The new Europe Ensemble will be given ample space and time at the theatre in Stuttgart to establish itself as an independent ensemble. Actors and directors from Croatia, Bosnia, Poland, Greece and Germany will collaborate with the ensemble on joint theatre productions over a period of two years. The productions will thematically explore the question of how Europe can be re-envisioned and what socio-political utopias could serve to strengthen the European project. Can democratic fatigue in Western societies be counteracted through artistic means? How can these artistic impulses reinvigorate the crisis-ridden European project? In charge of the artistic direction of the Europe Ensemble is stage director and author Oliver Frljić, known for his critical views on societal circumstances and his provocative visual imagery. In his often controversially discussed theatre pieces, Frljić reveals the blind spots and quietly festering wounds of European society with special focus on the new countries of former Yugoslavia. Each participating theatre will stage two productions and present the other two productions as guest performances. The performances of the Europe Ensemble in Stuttgart will be accompanied by a major symposium.

The Productions

In Frljić’s project Imaginary Europe, we turned to key moments of European history; in Erazm / Erasmus, French-Polish director Anna Smolar examined the relevance of Erasmus of Rotterdam’s humanistic philosophy; Greek theatre maker Anestis Azas employed Ödön von Horváth's The Eternal Philistine to portray a deeply insecure generation in the throes of upheaval. In 2020, three additional directors will take up the challenge of questioning the European project through their original productions. Selma Spahić launches this second round with The Clickworkers.

Artistic director: Oliver Frljić (HR)
Stage director: Anna Smolar (PL), Anestis Azas (GR), Selma Spahić

Additional Dates and Venues:

Theatre performance with accompanying discussion programme – Schauspiel Stuttgart: 1 Mar. 2018 – 6 Apr. 2019; theatre performance – Nowy Teatr, Warsaw: 13 Aug. 2018 – 30 Sep. 2020, 1 Jun. – 24 Jul. 2019; theatre performance – Youth Theatre, Zagreb: 21 Oct. – 9 Dec. 2019; guest performances – Schauspiel Stuttgart: 13–19 Jan. 2020; Nowy Teatr, Warsaw: 22–28 Jan. 2020; youth theatre, Zagreb: 3–9 Feb. 2020; theatre performance – Schauspiel Stuttgart: 1 Mar. – 24 Apr. 2020; youth theatre, Zagreb: 19 Oct. – 10 Dec. 2020; guest performances –Nowy Teatr, Warsaw: 4–10 Jan. 2021; youth theatre, Zagreb: 14–21 Jan. 2021; guest performance festival with accompanying discussion programme – Schauspiel Stuttgart: 25–31 Jan. 2021