In early summer this year, I went to the famous theater festivals in two European cities — first the Theater der Welt 2014, which ran May 23-June 8 in the war-blitzed and rebuilt southwest German city of Mannheim, then to the Sibiu International Theatre Festival 2014 held June 6-15 in the Romanian city of that name, which still bears traces of its medieval history.
Theater der Welt, presented under the auspices of the German Centre of the International Theatre Institute, began in 1981 and is held every three years, with a new programming director and location each time. This year, the director was Matthias Lilienthal, 54, who is known for his innovative projects. Meanwhile, the Sibiu event has been held annually since 1993, with director Constantin Chiriac, 56, at the helm.
At Theater der Welt, two plays from Japan had been chosen as invitational works — Chelfitsch's "Super Premium Soft Double Vanilla Rich," written and directed by Toshiki Okada, which pursues the relationship between humans and economics through the medium of Japan's ubiquitous conbini 24-hour stores, and the Niwa Gekidan Penino company's deeply psycho-sexual "Box in the Big Trunk" written and directed by Kuro Tanino.