ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Maxim Gorki Theater and Komische Oper Berlin’s engagement with Berlin’s migrant and postmigrant populations. The Gorki has become well known for its focus on themes related to migration under the artistic direction of Shermin Langhoff and Jens Hillje. Since November 2016, it has also been the home of the Exil Ensemble, composed of professional actors in exile from Afghanistan, Syria, and Palestine. The Komische Oper has tried to engage and reflect the large Turkish-German population of Berlin since Barrie Kosky became artistic director in 2012. From that time, Turkish subtitles have been available for all productions, and the theatre has produced a number of children’s operas in German and Turkish. The chapter begins by examining the context of both theatres’ engagement with migrants and postmigrants, and their attempts to reflect these lives on stage. It then focuses on specific productions, including the Gorki’s Herbstsalon and Skelett eines Elefanten in der Wüste, and Komische Oper’s Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten/Bremen Mızıkacıları, drawing on Michael Rothberg’s notion of multidirectional memory to explore how these productions work to expand the German national narrative in general, and the Berlin city narrative in particular, to include refugee, migrant, and postmigrant voices.
