Roland Schimmelpfennig is Germany’s most produced writer. Known for his surprising juxtapositions of lyricism and violence, as well as his breadth of storytelling techniques, Schimmelpfennig’s work shares recurrent themes of alienation and connection, desire and regret, along with the peculiar ways his language unfolds. Marked by a direct and almost clipped diction, his language can be both brutal and near-mythic by turns. His characters are frequently isolated from one another, but share a set of images and experiences that suggest a connection they rarely recognize, even when they’re literally sharing dreams.
David Tushingham, who has translated many of Schimmelpfennig’s work into English (including The Golden Dragon), links his language and thematic interests: “His work is always functioning on different levels at the same time. Structurally, you’ll have elements of a fairy tale and elements that are more realistic. But his language combines elements of contemporary life in a way that is quite elegant, both humorous and surprisingly serious at the same time.”
Here’s how Schimmelpfennig describes his work and process:
“I’ve lived in Turkey. I’ve worked in America. My wife has a Mexican passport, and the friends of my children have roots in India, Cuba, Peru, Vietnam. My plays don’t care about intellectuals in galleries, but in fruit dealers and cashiers, the bleary-eyed girls in the morning on the subway. Berlin isn’t an intellectual city any more. It’s an open city, an international metropolis. That’s the city I write for.”
“I don’t start with an idea of genre. A play finds its own genre.”
“Good stories are often found on the street. They just have to be discovered.”
“In my plays, the actor becomes a character, but is also always present as an actor. He can’t disappear behind the mask of a ‘character’, which makes the experience more transparent, and in some ways, even more human.”
“Plays reflect their time. Above all, they reflect the people and their needs and desires, their mistakes and fears, their inadequacies and cruelty—and that in itself is complex enough.”
“The focus of dramatic art is always on the human being. Theatre deals with people. Theatre is not that good at dealing with theory or with global economic structures. Theatre is good at giving these things a name and a human face.”
—Adrien-Alice Hansel