In 1981 Fassbinder spent 14 days in Cologne with a camera following the progress of the “Theater der Welt” festival, which had been founded the same year by the German center of the International Theater Institute. The result, RWF’s only documentary and the product of a collaboration between TV broadcaster ZDF’s then extremely active theater department led by Ulrich Kienzle and Thomas Schühly’s production company Laura-Film, was premiered on October 8, 1981 at the Mannheimer Filmwoche.  

For two weeks Fassbinder observed theater groups from 15 countries, including New York’s legendary Squat Theater, the Het Werktheater from Amsterdam and  Pina Bausch’s Wuppertal Tanztheater. In the course of the (now world-famous) festival in 1981, thirty theater groups presented a total of 100 performances that showcased their visions of a new European theater.

The text spoken off-camera by Fassbinder had been written decades before by Antonin Artaud, one of modern theater’s most important theoreticians. In his collection of writings published as The Theater and Its Double, from which the passages spoken in the film by Fassbinder are taken, Artaud develops a radical counter-model to a theater that had become paralyzed by convention.  

The 90-minute documentary was released on DVD for the first time by Arthaus on December 12, 2010. 

More Information: 

RWFF filmography about THEATER IN TRANCE 

Photo left: RWF during THEATER IN TRANCE, 1981 © Mina Kindl

Photo right: RWF and Karin Viesel during THEATER IN TRANCE, 1981 © Mina Kindl