Staging Consent and Threatened Masculinity. The Debate on #MeToo in German Contemporary Theater

In comparison with the reach and force of the social media outcry in the United States, the German response to #MeToo may seem tepid. The theater, however, especially those institutions with a track record of featuring contemporary social and political controversies, did respond in force. In particular, the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin offered the most pronounced response to the gender-based inequities seemingly intrinsic to the performing arts and entertainment industry. It opened the 2018–19 season with two original plays that explicitly thematize the movement and its aftermath: "Yes but No" by Yael Ronen, which premiered on the main stage on September 7, 2018; and "You Are Not the Hero of This Story" by Suna Gürler and Lucien Haug, which premiered on the theater’s smaller stage the next day. On the basis of these works, this contribution investigates the representation of gender conflict and sexual abuse, and foregrounds the normalization of harassment and abuse, both on and beyond the stage. The paper looks specifically at the attempts in "Yes but No" and "You Are Not the Hero of This Story" to portray and harness the potentially transformative power of #MeToo toward staging a more equitable future.