Goethe Institut hosts “Contemporary German drama in South Asian Languages”

Many German plays are known to us through their English translations. However, translations in South Asian languages make it possible for local theatre and audiences to familiarize themselves with contemporary German plays. These reflections gave rise to the project “Contemporary German drama in South Asian Languages”.

The initial work of the project started in 2020, focusing on the selection of plays, as well as identifying qualified translators. Afterward, 25 translators worked on 46 translations of 20 German plays into six South Asian languages: Bangla, Urdu, Marathi, Tamil, Hindi, and Sinhalese.

As part of the project “Contemporary German plays in south Asian Languages”, Goethe-Institut Bangladesh is presenting staged reading of two German plays as per the following details:

Play: “DER ZINNSOLDAT UND DIE PAPIERTÄNZERIN”

by Roland  Schimmelpfennig.

Translated into Bangla by Romit Roy.

Scenic reading by Prachyanat

When: Sunday,  12 June at 6:30 PM

Where: Bangladesh Mohila Shamity - Dr. Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium

Play synopsis

Once upon a time, there was a paper ballerina and a tin soldier with only one leg, nobody was fond of either of them. They were not part of the collection of toys, they were just arbitrarily placed on the window ledge. Love at first sight , no sooner than they discover the lovely feeling, the window opens and unwillingly, they are forced to embark upon an adventure. He is heavy like a stone, he falls down , she is as light as a feather, she whirls in the air.

Two journeys, two stories. They narrate the flight into the clouds, wild paper boat cruises through the canalization, merciless procedure of passport control at the border. During the onslaught of risks and dangers, there is only one consolation for both, they remember that the journey started together. They almost travel through a miracle and meet at the end on the kitchen board and their story gets united and becomes one. They have toiled through and survived water and fire, now they stand in front of the audience and tell the story.

The Playwright

Roland Schimmelpfennig was born in Göttingen in 1967. He first worked as a freelance journalist and author in Istanbul before he began studying directing at the Otto Falkenberg School in Munich in 1990. After graduation, he became an assistant director and later a member of the artistic staff at the Munich Kammerspiele. Roland Schimmelpfennig was engaged as dramaturge and author at the Berlin Schaubühne during the 1999/2000 season. He is currently an in-house playwright at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg.

His plays have been translated into 20 languages. In the summer of 2010, he was awarded the Mülheimer Dramatikerpreis, regarded as the highest honour for a playwright in the German language.

Play: “ICH LIEBE DICH“

by Kristo Sagor

Translated into Bangla by Parthapratim Chattopadhyay.

Scenic reading by Bonhishikha

When: Monday, 13 June at 6:30 PM

Where: Bangladesh Mohila Shamity - Dr. Nilima Ibrahim Auditorium

Play synopsis

Julian's parents are getting divorced. This rattles his idea of love. Does adult love pass as quickly as the love for lemon-flavored ice cream or chestnuts or a guinea pig? He is quite sure that he loves Lia and will always love her: "Love you." "Love you not," says Lia.

Who loves whom - and why, to be honest? What does love mean, and how does it work at present? And what is the difference between “I love you” and “Love you”? And what is the opposite of love? Twelve-year-old Julian and eleven-year-old Lia face the small but important differences and also the big questions about love and its impermanence. And they let all the loved ones, even those almost forgotten, have their say, they put themselves in the shoes of the living and the dead, of the dancing grandparents and the arguing parents, and even in the shoes of loved ones in the future. In this way, the children condense their love into an eventful story and simultaneously win for themselves important moments in their own lives.

Are those that we love the ones who change our view of the world - and how does a new loved one deal with it? In the end, Julian knows at least one thing for sure: For him, there is one love that lasts forever, even after death.

Playwright

Kristo Sagor was born in 1976 in Stadtoldendorf. He studied linguistics as well as literature and theatre studies at the Free University of Berlin. He writes and stages plays and composes his own stage arrangements for existing works, including Goethe's “Werther”, Horváth's “Jugend ohne Gott” (Youth without God) and most recently “Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum” (The lost honour of Katharina Blum) based on Heinrich Böll’s novel. He has received numerous awards for his plays, including the Audience Award at the Heidelberg Play Market in 2001 and the Youth Play Award in 2019, the Author’s Award at the Dutch-German children's and youth theatre festival "Kaas und Kappes" in 2003, and 2005, the Baden-Württemberg Youth Theatre Award in 2014 and the Mülheim Children's Play Award in 2019. For his directorial work, he received the 2008 German Theatre Prize DER FAUST as the best director in children's and youth theatre. Kristo Sagor lives in Berlin, read a Goethe-Institut Bangladesh press release.