Jury statement

“Located on a side street not far from Flensburg’s harbor, the Theaterwerkstatt Pilkentafel looks far beyond the city’s borders. Flensburg: That means harbor city. City of tourism. City of rum. But also, the city to which the Nazis retreated at the end of the Third Reich. A city that profited from the slave trade and exploitation. Elisabeth Bohde and Torsten Schütte pursue their themes in long chronological lines, linking the city’s history with world history, the present with the past. They never want to lecture. Their productions demonstrate an attitude, but also constant doubt, which is the beginning of all thought. In their small theater space, which once actually housed a workshop, we look inside the human machine. ‘Von der Begierde Burgen zu Bauen’ is the title of a self-examination, ‘Vom Reisen in ehemaligen Kolonien’ is a positioning piece that links the colonial history of the Virgin Islands with the present-day wealth of the Hanseatic city of Flensburg. Pilkentafel’s plays make use of drama, performance, object theater and new music. Complex, multifaceted and tentative, they resemble a shared search in which the performers constantly put themselves at risk. As one of the few independent theaters in Schleswig-Holstein, Pilkentafel is also actively involved in the expansion of the independent scene. Opening up to young talent is also a top priority in order to develop the theater workshop, whose impact as a productive place for thinking and negotiating socio-political issues extends far beyond the city, into a central, supra-regionally networked production house for Schleswig-Holstein’s independent scene in the future. The jury considers this long-standing essential pioneering work to be absolutely worthy of the award.” –  Jury statement