Multilingualism and Postmigrant Theatre in Germany

Abstract

Immigrants to Germany have fought for decades to be recognized in the country’s artistic sphere. In the German theatre, there was no such recognition before the beginning of the twenty-first century, when the opening of the Ballhaus Naunynstraße and the coining of the term “postmigrant theatre” made multilingualism visible on stage as a practice of resistance and empowerment. This article focuses on how multilingualism has been used to mark theatrical space and empower artists of colour in the German theatre. By drawing a historical line from Feridun Zaimoğlu’s Kanak Sprak to the postmigrant theatre of the Ballhaus Naunynstraße and then analysing the queer performance piece Frutas afrodisíacas and Mehdi Moradpour’s Mumien: Ein Heimspiel, this article explores how multilingualism and the creolization of the German language have transformed the German theatre.

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