Challenges of Collective Management of the Volksbühne and of the Political Theatre Par Excellence

The article presents selected issues related to the collective management of the Volksbühne initiated by René Pollesch together with six representatives of the theatre company. The crisis caused by the non-renewal of Frank Castorf’s managerial contract and the disclosure of the sexist practices of one of his successors, Klaus Dörr, provoked a broad debate around the preferred management style in this Berlin theatre. Drawing on numerous articles and conversations published in professional magazines (Theater heute, Theater der Zeit) and the opinion-forming all-German press, the author illuminates the heuristic, intuitive character of the new collective management at the Volksbühne against the background of the growing debate in Germany about the need to empower social groups excluded in terms of class, race or gender. The calls for dismantling the central position of the theatre manager (Intendant) and employing a post-heroic management model are confronted with the analysis of the Volksbühne case in terms of ‘politicised’ theatre. According to Jacques Rancière, the political nature of art manifests itself in establishing an open space in which voiceless groups or communities can articulate their political aspirations and attempt to redefine the order of the ‘distribution of the sensible.’ On the one hand, it is worth noting that the newest collective management of the Volksbühne seeks to go beyond the centralised pattern of leadership performed by Frank Castorf and his group of ‘old revolutionaries’ towards the emancipation of women and non-heteronormative groups. On the other hand, the problem of empowerment of Eastern Europeans regained its importance after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. It means the restitution of a key challenge of Castorf’s theatre that was proclaimed after the reunification of Germany