The resistance festival
What is Remmidemmi?
Climate crisis, Corona, war in Europe: never in recent years have more people been on the streets to demonstrate politically for or against something, never in the recent past has there been more and more controversial discussion about resistance in our society. For the resistance festival Remmidemmi, the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg has commissioned plays in which ten authors ask what resistance is and where it has to be made.
The playwrights combine subjective perspectives with socio-political approaches.
The festival will be completed by a German-language premiere with an international perspective – »La Linea« by the Belgian author Michael Bijnens and a contribution by the Ukrainian author Oksana Sawtschenko, the audio walk »The night hides the morning«.
How does the festival work?
You decide for one of six routes. Depending on which route you choose, you start your festival tour in a different place: You can start at Zwinger (route 1 and 2), at Theaterplatz (route 3), at Mark Twain Center (route 4), in the Chapel (route 5) or at Alte Anatomie (route 6). Wherever you start, our festival guides will take you from event to event. On each route, you will see three plays and you will learn about different forms of resistance on your way: boycotting, dissidence, pie throwing, activism, guerrillas, whistle-blowing. Stage director and festival curator Dorothea Schroeder has created the framework programme and decided on the routes.
The different routes will all meet at Theaterplatz to watch the world premiere of »The light of the world« in the Marguerre-Saal together. Afterwards, a party or chill-out will offer the chance to talk about what happened on the different routes.
Which resistance type are you? What undiscovered sides lie dormant within you? Find your own resistance! Be woke, be part of the discussion, be active! Bring your curiosity and comfortable shoes.
Enjoy Remmidemmi!
How did Remmidemmi come to be?
During the pandemic, the performing arts were faced with great challenges: Theatres had to remain closed, there was a backlog of completed productions and freelance artists lost their engagements. The situation of artists from the cultural scene, which was precarious even before, worsened. The Verband der Theaterautor*innen (association of playwrights) reacted to these developments with a call for help in November 2020: »Commission new pieces – NOW!« Authors had spent their savings and new commissions were given out only hesitantly. As our society found and finds itself in a completely new and exceptional situation, we still urgently need multi-voiced reflections on these transformations: »We are experts on the present – so use our services!« was the playwrights appeal.
Contemporary theatre is an essential part of the repertoire of the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, not only during the festival Heidelberger Stückemarkt. Heidelberg's theatre therefore took the Verband der Theaterautor*innen at their word and commissioned nine new plays which will all premiere at Remmidemmi.
The resistance festival's concept dates back to a historical event: This May will mark the 50th anniversary of the RAF attack on the Campbell Barracks, the headquarters of the US Forces, located in Heidelberg's Südstadt. The attacks claimed three lives. Put on stage at Mark Twain Center, the piece »Heidelberg 72 ff.« by Philipp Löhle takes a close look at this event, which took place in the immediate vicinity.
This was taken as a starting point to ask the other authors of the festival to take up the topic resistance in their plays as well: How have resistance movements changed in the last decades and how has our perception of them changed?
How did the Remmidemmi teams come to be?
The festival is based on a special form of artistic analysis: Collective meetings of authors and stage directors in Heidelberg have opened up new spaces for thoughts and created new alliances. This close artistic exchange of all stakeholders led to productive teams that banded together on their productions.
In addition, students of the Toneelacademie Maastricht took over responsibility for the costumes and formed part of the teams.