These are not the Disney fairy tales...

It seems that fairy tales are in. Lately I've been hearing so much about them: the TV shows "Grimm" and "Once upon a Time," the re-making of children's fairy tales into adult movies: "Red Riding Hood" (2011) and "Snow White and the Huntsman" (2012) with Charlize Theron as the evil queen.

the Märchenhütte

So when I heard about a small German theater that plays fairy tales--for children during the day and for adults at night--I had to go.

Tonight Michael and I saw four Märchen (fairy tales) at the Märchenhütte (fairy tale cabin). In "preparation," I've been reading the original Grimm fairy tales on the train while commuting to/from the library and the FU. They're really fun to go back to as an adult, and these Grimm versions are so violent and brutal sometimes--very different from the watered-down Disney stories. For example, did you know Rapunzel gets pregnant, and that's how the evil fairy (not a witch) knows the prince has been getting up into the tower?! And here is what happens to the evil stepmother in "The 12 brothers": Was sollten sie mit der bösen Stiefmutter anfangen; sie ward in ein Faß gesteckt von siedendem Oehl und von giftigen Schlangen angefüllt, und starb da eines bösen Todes. [she was put in a barrel with boiling oil and filled with poisonous snakes, and died there a nasty death].  Ha! Sometimes it makes me laugh out loud.

I remember reading the original Hans Christian Anderson "Little Mermaid" at my aunt Julie's house--which was a much different version than the Disney one. It also reminds me of hearing Lise Lunge-Larsen's troll stories when I was in school in Duluth. She's a local storyteller who draws upon the Norwegian tradition of telling troll stories. Here, too, kids hear somewhat brutal stories: but good always wins over evil, smart people are able to trick the dumb trolls through cunning.

And I love the patterns that emerge: don't tell a lie, good deeds will be repaid, persistence pays off...

We saw "Der Wolf & die sieben Geißlein" [The wolf and the seven little goats], "Das tapfre Schneiderlein" [the valiant little tailor] and two "Gruselmärchen" [horror stories] for adults, rated 18+. "Gevatter Tod" [Godfather Death], and "Von einem, der auszog, das Fürchten zu lernen" [The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was]. Our favorite was the Schneiderlein. They did a great job playing off of the two characters. Michael: "Hysterical." The "adult" Märchen were a bit of a disappointment. Not scary, but also not as funny as the other ones. They took "adult" to mean "vulgar" in most cases...But it was a really cool atmosphere in the "cabin", and a unique Berlin/German experience.

Have any of you seen these new movies, or the TV shows? Or re-read fairy tales recently? I'd like to know what you think about this phenomenon.

outside the "cabin" there was a campfire, another cabin, and a pizzeria

Georg Heym

In honor of expressionist poet Georg Heym (30 October 1887 - 16. January 1912 in Berlin). His poems have some language to describe the metropolis of early 20th-century, and the Weltschmerz of modern life in the city.

Ludwig Meidner

Die Stadt

Sehr weit ist diese Nacht. Und Wolkenschein

Zerreißet vor des Mondes Untergang.

Und tausend Fenster stehn die Nacht entlang

Und blinzeln mit den Lidern, rot und klein.

Wie Aderwerk gehn Straßen durch die Stadt,

Unzählig Menschen schwemmen aus und ein.

Und ewig stumpfer Ton von stumpfem Sein

Eintönig kommt heraus in Stille matt.

Gebären, Tod, gewirktes Einerlei,

Lallen der Wehen, langer Sterbeschrei,

Im blinden Wechsel geht es dumpf vorbei.

Und Schein und Feuer, Fackeln rot und Brand,

Die drohn im Weiten mit gezückter Hand

Und scheinen hoch von dunkler Wolkenwand.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1911

Nacht
(this one, with the constant sound of rain in the city streets, is particularly fitting for January Berlin)

Der graue Himmel hängt mit Wolken tief,
Darin ein kurzer, gelber Schein so tot
Hinirrt und stirbt, am trüben Ufer hin
Lehnen die alten Häuser, schwarz und schief
Mit spitzen Hüten. Und der Regen rauscht
In öden Straßen und in Gassen krumm.
Stimmen ferne im Dunkel. – Wieder stumm.
Und nur der dichte Regen rauscht und rauscht.
Am Wasser, in dem nassen Flackerschein
Der Lampen, manchmal geht ein Wandrer noch,
Im Sturm, den Hut tief in die Stirn hinein.
Und wenig kleine Lichter sind verstreut
Im Häuserdunkel. Doch der Strom zieht ewig
Unter der Brücke fort in Dunkel weit.

zum 200. Todestag - Heinrich von Kleist

http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buecher/autoren/heinrich-von-kleist-aus-dem-leben-11534227.html

It is the 200 year anniversary of the German poet/writer Heinrich von Kleist's death. It ended with a carefully orchestrated murder-suicide out in Wannsee, outside of Berlin.

Kleist wasn't very well-received during his life, and only wrote a small number of plays and prose pieces, but he is very popular today among scholars of German studies, also because his writings often theorize writing itself. He has a unique style, with lots of long, complex sentences, and brutally violent scenes. If you want to read something, you can get The Marquise of O and Other Stories in English. The title story, for instance, begins with a raped woman who, finding herself pregnant, puts an ad in the paper to find the father of the baby. Yes, crazy stuff.

from Hermannsschlacht production

In honor of this anniversary, there have been lots of events going on...including a theater festival at the Maxim Gorki Theater. I went to three plays: Hermannsschlacht, Penthesilea, Die Familie Schroffenstein. I have to admit, it wasn't really my kind of theater...people stripping down naked...yelling at the audience...cutting down the script.... I'm also not a connoisseur of modern theater and don't really go to productions like this very often, so I also had trouble judging the merits of the stagings. 

Penthesilea

Die Familie Schroffenstein