conversations in ten questions 75: Tue Biering

The New Text Festival, organized by GalataPerform, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and which is Turkey's first and only playwriting festival, took place this year for the twelfth time between 24th November and 4th December 2023, focusing on the theme of "Real". At the festival, which creates an area where Turkish writers and directors meet with artists from abroad within the scope of Theater Beyond Borders, we continue from where we left off by publishing our conversations with international playwrights whose plays have been translated into Turkish and staged readings. Our next guest is Tue Biering. 

Over the last 25 years, Tue Biering has initiated and directed a wide variety of projects, including new dramatic works, classics, operas and interactive performances. He has won many awards, most recently the Crown Prince Couple's Cultural Award. Biering looks at our concepts of the world and shows different aspects of the stories that surround us that we think we know. Under Fix + Foxy, he transforms classics and pop culture texts into hyperreal performances by staging "real" people instead of artists. In Welcome to Twin Peaks, David Lynch's remake of the movie Twin Peaks, the inhabitants of a small village take the audience on a journey into their own world on the outskirts of Denmark. Biering challenges the audience's conventional ideas about theatre, provokes them and invites interaction and attitude determination.

What is the essence of good play/playwriting in your opinion?

At least there are four things. 

1 That it wants some kind of impact. That it is unexpected and surprises me. That it challenge me. That it is a voice that challenges me. 

2 That I forget myself. It takes me to a place I’ve never been. That it draws me and keeps my attention. Because it is in dialogue with me. 

3 And I like when it is a personal voice. What I find different about skilfully written drama and the drama that I find truely interesting is when it is personal. When I read a personal, very special way of writing. When there is a signature. 

4 And perhaps most importantly, when it is brave. When it dares to be itself and when it dares to do something new, even though it may not be something everyone can understand.

Do you believe in the transformative power of art? How?

I believe that everything is a process and everything is potentially transformative. Our DNA is built from the stories and impressions we have been influenced by. So an encounter with another human being, like an encounter with art, is potentially transformative. Art is expression that creates an impression. I believe that I make impressions. Empathy in other people. That art and storytelling is itself a very special opportunity to change. In some of my performances, the actors are not actors. And they are often changed because performing arts is a process and as they are standing with their own story in front of an audience, they find them seldf in a space of reflection. At the same time its also a space where their story becomes a fiction. When that happens, you can distance yourself from your history and your traumas and it can be a way of processing it in a new way and that is transformative. But I, myself, do not work purposefully on the social or psychological transformative processes in the actors. It is something that happens. I am present in the process as an artist not a therapist. And I think that is very crucial for people if they should open up and expose themselves to an audience. Art is a space where you can work dedicated and collaborative and connect to the piece of art and maybe escape from real life social workers and therapists (nothing wrong with them!).

When you are working on a text, what sources inspire you? Do dreams play a role in your works?

Reality inspires me. I listen to conversations, I absorb reality and other people. I am curious about that, which I know nothing about. I am inspired by impossible tasks. If anyone tells me something is impossible, I want to do it. I am not inspired by nocturnal dreams. I rarely remember anyone. It comes from parenting and not getting enough sleep. But dreams of change, plays a huge role in my work. I see myself as an activist who wants to create change.

When do you decide to give a title to a work you are working on if it already does not have one?

Many times the title and the idea come at the same time. I need a title that I can hang the material on. And then it's nice to have a title to remind me of the core of my project. But it can change, as the project can change.

Are there any writer, artist or person whom you think influenced your art most? And if there is such a figure, who?

Rene Pollesh. German playwright and director who was very important to me in the 90s and 00s. He writes extremely concretely and very little psychologically. It's very political and it's very confrontational. And the lyrics require a very powerful playing style. He is now the manager of the Volksbuhne in Berlin and I have not seen anything of him for a very long time. So I better get to Berlin soon. In the meantime, I have read and met many other artists who I have been equally inspired by and in many different ways and levels.

When you consider the current state of the world in every sense, what is the most important and urgent issue for you as an artist?

Polarization is our biggest challenge, so my work is primarily about bringing people together and making room for the uncomfortable conversations we don't normally have. We need to come together, no matter how different we are.

What are your main concerns when a play of yours is translated into another language?

That it also makes sense for the audience where it is to be played. There may be a difference in references and culture. And if there is no connection between my text and the audience, then it makes no sense. So it is important to have a very honest conversation about the text – if it is losing its meaning when it is translated and played in another country. 

Do you believe your works resonate more with your local culture/community or more universally?

I think first of all it resonates with myself. It is often myself and my own ignorance that I put at stake. I must be able to point at myself, my own faults, my own hypocrisy, before I point to others. So I portray my own hypocrisy and then of course I believe that it also reflects how other people might feel and be present in the world. And in addition, I like to investigate why other people do what they do and I invite those who rarely stand on a stage to be part of my work. I see myself as inclusive, but therefore I must also dare to invite the voices that I myself am afraid of onto the stage.

You often stage your own plays. While writing the plays, do ideas about staging it appear in your mind, or do you carry out the writing process independently of the fact that the text will exist on stage?

I'm very conscious of staging when I write my own stuff, so as I write, I am also doing my directing preparation.

Do you have any expectations from the Turkish directors who will be staging your play’s reading?

Good question. Actually I am super curious about what they will do. Hopefully I will be happily surprised. But it is a very personal, difficult and delicate text and I hope it resonates in a Turkish audience.

[The Turkish version of this interview was published in unlimited.]