Odyssey

For two days and one night, theatre was played throughout the entire city of Freiburg, and that free of charge: That was the Odyssey – a theatrical journey, a large-scale co-production of the free theatre scene with more than 40 ensembles and the Freiburg Theatre.

The project was initiated and driven by the PAN.OPTIKUM action theatre group and the municipal Freiburg Theatre in response to the city’s cutting the cultural budget.

At this event held on 24th and 25th October, all of the theatre ensembles of the city were involved in finding creative answers to the issue of the necessity of cultural support.

Homer’s epic not only represents the contextual thread, but also stands for the external form: the audience is sent on a journey and finds its own way to its theatre – throughout the city at usual and unusual sites, even on the street.

The whole event was an unexpectedly great success. Several thousand people crowded into the more than 120 performances.

Under the title Alpha & Omega, PAN.OPTIKUM put on the opening and closing events. The Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot was used as a textual basis. (Please see the Photo Gallery for pictures.)