Luxembourg monodrama festival: brave women, nine premieres and an intercultural mix of languages

Max Pfnür has to be crazy. The actor living in Salzburg and trained brings an extraordinary production to Luxembourg. At the invitation of the fundamental monodrama festival, which starts on June 13th, Pfnür’s interpretation of Goethe’s « Faust » becomes the big end of the theater meeting. And not for no reason: Pfnür plays both parts of the German classic and takes over all – yes, really everyone – roles in the five -hour version.

Steve Karen, who organizes the series in the Bonnenweg Banannnefabrik as festival manager, does not believe in a stress test for the audience – on the contrary: « It looks so colossal in the solution. Of course, it is a mentally ill idea, » jokes career. « But Max and his director Benjamin Blaikner do it in such a wonderfully easy way. It even turns out to be a profit for the piece. It is no longer so difficult, but, thanks to this lightness, » emphasizes the festival manager for performance on June 22.

Convenient immersion in the German classics

Because by the fact that Pfnür comes with simple costume changes and without too much frills, there is no long change of scene or appearance as with a large production, the focus remains on it. « Even if the audience goes into the planned two breaks, Pfnür will not leave the stage. That makes a strong impression, » emphasizes career.

And the viewers? You should be able to get involved in this theater trip conveniently. « The atmosphere should be very relaxed in the auditorium. Even if someone wants to leave the room briefly or stretch out – as long as it happens on soft soles, that’s not a problem, » says career compared to other theater situations.

Despite all the attractive peculiarity of the « Faust » project, the fundamental monodrama festival has 13 other events in its portfolio this year. As always, only one actor or an actor is completely in focus every project. Despite all the trouble to clarify everything in advance, career still reaches borders when organizing.

This is also due to the fact that he wants to give rooms from the African continent, where there is often hardly any space or money for creative work or is even suppressed. But that makes it complicated. « The main problem is that many Africans do not get a visa. Despite the perfectly ordered papers, despite our great routine over the past few years and despite the help of the Luxembourg foreign representatives, it can even happen at short notice that artists and artists are simply not being given the visa or are prevented from leaving. For whatever reason, » he reports from work in the background.

Brave women, nine premieres and a strong mix of culture

Carier invites you to the festival partner from the Niger. « Unfortunately, the structures have broken down completely. Together with other friends from the French theater scene, we want to try to make the work in the Niger possible again. However, nothing is visible to the audience. Also because simply no productions could be made. And yet these background meetings are part of the festival. »

At all adversity, career and his small team succeeded in bringing Safourata Kabore from Burkina Faso with her work « Noces » in the direction of the « great Odile Sankara », according to the festival chief. And this work has it all. Kabore, who wrote the text himself, develops the story of a woman on stage who has to face traumatic memories and her history shortly before her wedding. « This is very African direct, very own and very intensive, » says KARIER.

This time women are very focused at the festival. And of course the festival would like to meet the Luxembourg language mix and the wonderful possibilities of intercultural exchange in the country. In addition, there are many premiums in which the actors have the opportunity to face challenges in the festival framework that would otherwise not be so easily possible.

This applies, for example, to the work of Jess Baudry and Sarah Lamesch. With your self -written English -language pieces, you can prove your skills in front of an audience. « June 19th is all about English. And yet there are many influences. Jess lives in Luxembourg and Sarah actually started her acting in German -speaking countries as a Luxembourgian. And it will be exciting how to get her monodramatic experiments on stage. Precisely because such pieces are less in the Anglophone space, it is wonderful to create a new space here, » says career. Nine of the projects selected for the festival edition 2025 are premieres.

« We searched for a Portuguese-speaking monodrama production for a long time, but only now we have really found what we were looking for, » emphasizes the festival manager. What is meant is the production « Silêncio, Que Vai-Se Cantar O Fado! » by and with Magaly Teixeira. She traces her Portuguese roots with a creative reappraisal between theater and fado. Texts and traditions mingle and in turn are reinterpreted and transformed by the perspective of this “Portuguese in the third generation”.

An overview of the productions of this year’s festival with all information can be found at www.fundamental.lu. Tickets for the evenings between 13 and 22 June cost 20 euros (reduced 8 euros, cultural pass tickets possible). The festival pass for all events is available at a price of 80 euros.