The making of Berlin is a portrait of a city. It is built around the extraordinary story of Friedrich Mohr, a Berliner who was the Berliner Philharmoniker’s orchestra stage manager during WWII. The making of Berlin – with live horn music – offers an unfiltered look at BERLIN’s work process. But above all, it tells the story of one of the ‘unbrave’ who failed to stand up when fellow Jewish musicians and friends were expelled from the orchestra. The making of Berlin is the final part of the Holocene cycle, during which BERLIN made several portraits of cities over the past twenty years.

 

 

BERLIN helps Mohr to realize an as yet unfulfilled dream. At the end of WWII, the conductor of the Philharmonic decided to perform Siegfried’s Funeral March from Wagner’s Götterdämmerung one last time. The performance would be broadcast live on German state radio. Rehearsing with the entire orchestra in one location soon proved too dangerous due to ongoing bombing. So the conductor divided the orchestra into seven segments and had them rehearse in separate bunkers. Faltering [recording] technology threw a spanner in the works. Mohr’s ultimate wish is to perform the technical tour de force as initially planned seventy-five years after the date. The Götterdämmerung will be played from seven bunkers simultaneously and can be heard in its entirety on the radio. A daring feat for which BERLIN called on, among others, radio station Klara, the orchestra of Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and German actor Martin Wuttke [known from Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds].

 

Theatre-and film-maker Fien Leysen records the creation process for a behind-the-scenes documentary. Her footage eventually ends up in the performance as well. You gradually discover together with BERLIN that Mohr’s story is full of inaccuracies and that he seems to want to restore the irreparable. How far can you stretch the truth when you're looking for atonement?

'A feast of confusion.' – Jowi Schmitz, Trouw

'One of the most important productions of this year.' – Hein Janssen, De Volkskrant

'Ingeniously layered.' – Ron Rijghard, NRC

'[…] The detailed account revealed by the old man is extraordinary—at once unusual, wildly adventurous, poignant, and full of flair. […] A (major) wrench is thrown into the works, confirming Berlin’s insidious—and, in truth, rather Machiavellian—ability to manipulate documentary material with both careful precision… and a searing touch.' – Gilles Rénault, Libération

'In The Making of Berlin, it is ultimately fiction and art that prevail—not only as powerful revealers of truth but as essential ways of transcending reality itself.' – Fabienne Darge, Le Monde

'A haunting dive into the labyrinthine depths of this solemn yet playful alliance between performance and cinema.' – Catherine Robert, La Terrasse

'As masters of storytelling, Yves Degryse and co. pull out all the stops again to completely draw their audience into the story, not in the least thanks to their exciting plot and multi-layered editing.' – excerpt jury report, Het TheaterFestival

'…The making of Berlin is overwhelming from start to finish.' – Gilles Michiels, De Standaard / Top 10 best productions of 2022

'Inimitably, this production brings together everything BERLIN excels at: a clever play on fact and fiction, documentary theatre and music. [...] A surprising plot twist calls everything into question and confronts you with fundamental questions about how we inject meaning into everyday life by fabricating stories.' – Ciska Hoet, De Morgen / Top 10 best productions of 2022

[critic's choice] 'Wonderful how beauty can turn everything upside down.' – Tuur Devens, Theaterkrant

'The making of Berlin is an overwhelming and poignant ode to the power of stories and how they can lift people above themselves and bring them together - in a theatre, for example. It is an ode to the multilayered, multiform, and true stories that we tell ourselves to stay afloat, justify our choices, and survive.' – Natalie Gielen, Etcetera

 

 

CAST AND CREW
Direction: Yves Degryse

Production: BERLIN
Technical direction & scenography: Manu Siebens
Video and Video Editing: Geert De Vleesschauwer, Fien Leysen, Yves Degryse

Musical composition: Peter Van Laerhoven
Production Management: Jessica Ridderhof
Live sound mixing: Arnold Bastiaanse
Cast (on stage):（Yves Degryse）、（Koen Goossens）

 

Yves Degryse (°1977) is the artistic director of BERLIN, the company he founded in 2003 with Bart Baele and Caroline Rochlitz. Alongside Barbara Raes and Melih Gençboyacı, he was recently appointed artistic director of NTGent. Since 2022 he has been the sole artistic director of BERLIN, with The making of Berlin as his first creation. At the same time, he created space within the company to support young creators, two associate artists who each carry out a project within BERLIN.

 

From 2000 to 2009 Degryse was also part of the theatre collective SKaGeN. He trained as an actor with Dora van der Groen and performed with several companies (De Queeste, De Onderneming, De Maan, Comp. Marius). Besides his work in theatre, he can also regularly be seen on television and on the big screen ( De Helaasheid der Dingen, Broken Circle Breakdown, etc). (photo: Koen Broos)

 

 

‘Armed with cameras, interview techniques, editing tables and actors, BERLIN portrays reality like a painter used to do: with a bit more color, lively angles of incidence and a brush setting that betrays a critical undertone.’ [Knack Focus – Belgian magazine]

 

BERLIN was founded in 2003 by artistic director Yves Degryse together with Bart Baele and Caroline Rochlitz. Alongside Barbara Raes and Melih Gençboyacı, Yves Degryse is now one of the three artistic directors of NTGent. BERLIN is joining in as house-maker.

 

The productions of BERLIN are positioned on the cusp of documentary and theatre. Each creation starts from reality: a city, a trivial event or testimony. They jump in at the deep end of a situation and disentangle the various storylines, never limiting themselves to just one discipline in the creative process. Content decides how a story is told: through images, live music, technology, text, as an installation... From within this philosophy BERLIN highlights the humaneness of whoever is being depicted, how (micro)communities function, the universality of the everyday.

 

Recently, BERLIN continue to build on the current momentum and will also create room for innovation. In 2024, Fien Leysen premiered as BERLIN’s first associate artist with ALABAMA, and in 2026, Emma Lesuis will create a performance at BERLIN. In 2024/25, Sophie Anna Veelenturf is working with BERLIN as a young artist in residence, developing the performance Swiping Right, which will premiere in the summer festival season of 2025.

 

In 2023 BERLIN also launched a five-year project, YouTurn, opening its archives to film students and fellow artists who can create new work with them. In 2024/25, BERLIN celebrates its 20th anniversary. The company’s foundations were laid in 2003 but it was on 26 October 2004 that Jerusalem, BERLIN’s first production, was staged at Vooruit (now VIERNULVIER, in Ghent).

Over the past two decades, BERLIN has been working on two project series: Holocene (the geological era), where the starting point is always in a city or village somewhere in the world, and Horror Vacui (the fear of emptiness), where remarkable, true stories are uncovered.

 

The five projects within Horror Vacui are Tagfish (2010), Land’s End (2011), Perhaps All The Dragons... (2014), Remember The Dragons... (2017) and True Copy (2018). The recent The making of Berlin (2022) is the final piece of the Holocene series, which also includes Jerusalem (2004/2013), Iqaluit (2005), Bonanza (2006), Moscow (2009) and Zvizdal (2016). Two projects fell outside the series: the audio performance/installation Wie oud wordt... (2019) and the film concert Ramble Song (2021).

 

In 2015 BERLIN was awarded the Ultima Performing Arts Award for its oeuvre. Bonanza, Land’s End, True Copy and The making of Berlin all got selected for the Belgian TheaterFestival. Zvizdal was part of the selection of the Dutch Theater Festival. Bonanza won a Total Theatre Award in the category ‘Innovation, Experimentation & Playing with Form’.

The making of Berlin © Koen Broos