On Saturday Night, three of the other English Assistants and I went to the ‘Theaternacht Lübeck’, which I can only describe as this city’s fringe festival.
So, the way this evening works is you buy a ticket from one of the many theatres (11€ for adults and 8€ for concessions – students etc.) and with this ticket you can attend any of the performances in these theatres.
We decided to meet early at 3pm and start our evening at 4pm with our first performance ‘Marionettentheater’ (puppet theatre). However, this theatre was not your average puppet theatre, as instead of there being a stage, the story was told in a water tank. So, the puppets were of swimmers and fish. Yes, it was a kids’ performance, but we all enjoyed it, nonetheless. Plus, this theatre had its’ own Golden Retriever, which made all of us happy.
After this performance, we headed into the Innenstadt and down this little lane, which opened up into a coffee bar. Up the stairs was the theatre ‘Kultur Rösterei’. The show being exhibited here was a history of women in Lübeck. This preview was about one of the women, named Dorothea Schlözer. She was the first woman to receive a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Germany. The show tells of the difficulties she faced to break into the patriarchal university system of the 1700s and how she succeeded. It was a small theatre, but the show was interesting (what we could understand of it anyway!)
Luckily, after this we had a gap in our schedule to grab some food and drink before another show. We kind of went from one extreme to another, as after our serious historical show, we went to a rock musical performance in a packed out cafe. We saw a show called ‘Spring Awakening’ in its original language of German. It is a rock musical based on a 19th Century German coming of age story. The music was amazing, and the singers were so good. Shame we couldn’t really see what was happening, but it sounded incredible!
Next, we headed to ‘Theater Lübeck’ (the main theatre in the city), which had a different performances every 15 minutes. Unfortunately, when we arrived, the main hall was full so we couldn’t get in. But it was nice to walk around this building anyway and see its grand architecture. Plus, we bumped into some of our colleagues from our schools, which was a lovely surprise.
Unfortunately, our small run of getting into theatres continued, when we tried to get into the ‘Zaubertheater’, which is the magic theatre. We really wanted to go, as it was recommended to us by colleagues, but the queue was enormous (20 minutes outside and 20 minutes inside), so sadly we had to move on.
So, off we headed to the ‘Theaterschiff’ (Theatre Boat). Yes, really! It was a boat with a container on, which housed the theatre. It was absolutely rammed. We arrived 20 minutes early for the first show as well! Luckily, we managed to get the last seats in the theatre, albeit they were scattered amongst the already seated audience. But here we saw Heartbreak Hotel, which features Elvis songs (the first thing I completely understood!) The performance was really funny, and they could really sing!! This was my personal highlight of the evening.
Lastly, we walked to our final show, at the start of hour 6 of our evening. It was based at the Europäisches Hansemuseum, in the Burgkloster. We were lucky once again getting the last 4 tickets. This show was a dance performance, but nothing like what I was anticipating or had ever seen before. It was a guided tour through the building, with 6 different stations, each with a different performance. Some represented water, the wind and shadows, and life and death. Initially it was quite eerie, but the dancers and dances were stunning. Everyone had their eyes glued to their movements. At the end, the applause was almost endless! My hands were hurting so much, but it was well deserved!
At the end of this performance, we called it a night and headed back to our houses.
All in all, I really enjoyed this evening (despite not understanding everything that was being said!) It was fun to experience Lübeck’s culture, as well as enjoy an evening out with friends!