Theaterpreis des Bundes 2015

Maxim Gorki Theater

Jury statement

“In the season following the highly acclaimed start of Shermin Langhoff and Jens Hillje’s directorship, the Maxim Gorki Theater continues to lead the way in reflecting the diversity of the city of Berlin, in its choice of material and in the composition of its predominantly post-migrant ensemble with their diversity of background experiences and in doing so shows what the future municipal theater could look like in Germany as a country of immigration. With play developments and productions that either discover new texts for the theater or make the canon readable anew with decisive interpretations, this theater has attracted and retained a young and heterogeneous audience. The Gorki also repeatedly takes uncomfortable stances, such as the aggressive thematization of the Armenian genocide (and Germany’s role in it) in the themed weeks Es schneit im April or the collaboration with the Zentrum für politische Schönheit (Erster Europäischer Mauerfall).” Jury statement