Radio LORA München interview with Sophie Becker

A large window to world

In this interview with Thilo Ruf, Sophie Becker, the Artistic and Festival Director, talks about what makes SPIELART an internationally significant festival with strong local ties. She also offers an early glimpse of the programme, and discusses the challenges and themes of this year's festival.

LORA Munich: Every two years, Munich becomes a venue for inspiring encounters with the local and international theatre, dance and art scenes. What can we look forward to this year?

Sophie Becker: SPIELART is a window to the world. It's an opportunity to meet people and artists from all over the world. Every two years in October, 20 to 30 productions gather in the city, performing in various venues, including traditional spaces, public spaces, and newly discovered performance venues.

LORA Munich: Let's take a look back. What has made the SPIELART Festival particularly distinctive in recent years?

Sophie Becker: I would highlight the projects in the city that generate local visibility and engage citizens beyond theatre spaces. Another special feature is that we always work with international co-curators to incorporate their perspectives.

In terms of urban projects, four years ago, for example, Julian Warner organised the large-scale 'Global Angst' parade, which ran through the entire city to the Olympic Park, where a ritual was held on the Olympic Lake. At the last festival in 2023, the 'GGGNHM: Guggenheim in Munich?' project saw an inflatable miniature Guggenheim Museum set up in front of the Bayerische Staatsoper. We dealt extensively with the topic of labour migration and people who came to Germany for this reason. At the same time, however, we were standing in front of the opera house and the Residenztheater, which generated a great deal of curiosity and led to valuable encounters, which are very important for SPIELART.

On the other hand, SPIELART has an international aspect. Of course, I always have to ask myself what it means for a German, white curator to travel to other countries, view productions there, and decide which ones to invite to the festival. This can sometimes feel like a colonial gesture. This is why we work with co-curators from different countries. For each edition, we work with two or three co-curators from countries such as South Africa, Taiwan and Belarus. They contribute their perspective and knowledge, explaining the context — our discussions are sometimes quite controversial. I always learn something in the process.

Last year, we had a Vietnamese co-curator. When we once talked about the Cold War, she reacted indignantly, saying, 'Your Cold War was relatively hot in Vietnam!' It made me realise how unreflectively people use words. Furthermore, we are always thinking about how we can improve our structures and support local scenes. Last time, a young man from Kampala interned in our technical department. He was a great asset to us, the team and the artists thanks to his work and his personality. He recently passed the exam for the August Everding Theatre Academy in Munich and is now studying stage direction there.

LORA Munich: Could you provide an overview of the themes for 2025?

Sophie Becker: One topic that is becoming increasingly relevant again is the fear of war. Young people in particular are asking themselves how to deal with it and how to take a stance. Many plays also address the question of how we can show solidarity today. It's about the much-discussed feeling of isolation. Several works this year respond differently to the question of how we can come together. (…)

 

the whole interview

 

Note: LORA München will provide editorial coverage of SPIELART this year with regular contributions to the LORA Magazin, every second Wednesday of the month.