Probably, when I get older and have young friends, I’ll tell them that I wrote a play about the dreams and nightmares of my great-grandmother, Julia Studinski. That it premiered in the town where she was born, 99 years after she left. That I went into her house and heard the bells she used to hear. That I saw her image projected in front of three hundred spectators every night of the festival. That, for an hour and twenty minutes, we listened to Chopin, just as she wanted. That I met the animals of the region and walked through the Jewish cemetery founded the year she was born.
To provide context, I’ll have to talk about how terrifying the world was on the night of the premiere — and the nights before, and after. That it didn’t stop raining, and neither did the fire in the Middle East. That nothing is better now than when she had to escape from this country. That the play denounces all of this, and that I was able to say so in a conversation with Olaf afterward. That before going to her village, I cut my hair to be in tune with the situation. That, in the barbershop in our neighborhood here in Berlin, a fragment of the Quran was playing.
Those were very intense, deeply emotional, and exhausting days. We’ve already premiered 'Es ist nie Sommer im Ruhrgebiet'!
Thank you, Shahrzad Rahmani, queen of dreamlike scenography; Gustavo Obligado, for the luminous and equally sinister soundscape; Ana Iramain, for curating the images from that infinite archive; Daryna and Pascal, for putting your bodies and voices into it; Lisa, for being on top of everything; Martin, for being such a generous technician; Ayana, for the costumes; Jean, for being the guardian of the text; Tobias, for being the first to name that place for mande; Charly Garcia & Martha Argerich, for exisisting in this world. Thanks Oliver and
@sfischertheater
Thanks
@ruhrfestspiele and
@theatermuenster for carrying this co-production forward.
Thank you to my lifelong friends and to my new ones. I love you all very much. Thanks family. Thanks Julia.
We’ll continue at
@theatermuenster next season.
And now, on June 21, we present a new work 'Nach dem Hass' at
@deutschestheaterberlin