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Olam HaBa: The Next World

Who was this Polish Jew that pulled his pants down in front of everyone and sat on the holy book with his bare bottom?

Who was this Jakob Frank, revered by his fans as a messiah and who converted from Judaism to Islam and from Islam to Catholicism? Who was persecuted by the powerful in Poland in the 18th century, spent many years in prison in Tschenstochau and whose story came to a strange but happy end in Offenbach am Main?

The performers LeinzLieberman have searched for the motives behinds this mystical messianic movement over the course of multiple trips tracing the footsteps of Jakob Frank. And they let themselves, together with the designer and DJ Markus Wente, be inspired by it in their new performance. They bring motifs and texts of Jakob Frank to the stage and then transform it into images and movements that also reflect the feelings and desires of people in the Berlin art and party scenes. Using both subtle and expansive images, they tell the story of a search for a new world in which all parts are once again integrated into a complete whole.

 

Followed by a post-performance discussion

LeinzLieberman are the performance makers Shlomo Lieberman (Israel/Germany) and Ulrich Leinz (Germany). Over the last three years, their work has been included in three consecutive Expat Expo | Immigration Invasion festivals and we premiered their groundbreaking The Other/Promised Land in the fall of 2016. We are very excited to host them – collaborating with colleagues – as our fall artists in residence, presenting three different works in September, October and November.

Lovers1 will be performed on September 29 and The Other/Promised Land will be performed on October 13.

The Other/Promised Land

“Maybe it’s just a myth.
You have your own history.
I have my own history.
And now we are just sharing the bathroom.”

Shlomo Lieberman and Ulrich Leinz confront three very different love stories in their performance: the disturbing memories about the grandmother who survived Auschwitz, the painful love letters of the German grandfather from Warsaw in 1943 and their own attempt to survive their relationship as a gay German/Israeli couple in Berlin.

LeinzLieberman are the performance makers Shlomo Lieberman (Israel/Germany) and Ulrich Leinz (Germany). Over the last three years, their work has been included in three consecutive Expat Expo | Immigration Invasion festivals and we premiered their groundbreaking The Other/Promised Land in the fall of 2016. We are very excited to host them – collaborating with colleagues – as our fall artists in residence, presenting three different works in September, October and November.

Lovers1 will be performed on September 29 and the first public presentation of their newest work-in-progress, Olam HaBa – The Next World, will be presented in THE LAB on November 3.

Lovers1

A distillation of “love” by Shlomo Lieberman & Tomer Zirkilevich: a performance for three blindfolded performers, a tv set and surtitles

What happens when two are no longer enough? Is there still the same intimacy as before? Other lovers appear. How to continue now?

In the second version of the performance they created last year as a duo, Shlomo Lieberman and Tomer Zirkilevich invite Austin Fagan for a trio.

The setting remains the same: the performers are blindfolded on an empty stage. Their task is to lift or to be lifted. And they repeat this procedure over and over as a ritual they cannot avoid. But unlike the performance last year, the roles are not clear as they were. Who is lifting whom? What should one do when he is left out? Does one should find a new role for himself? What are the options?

The performance provides insight into the fragility of relations, shows how aggression is easily evoked and can turn into grief. And how grief can establish power.

“Love is like a toy. If you play too much with it, you’ll break it. But if you don’t play with this toy, why should you have it?” (Surtitle at 5:43 min)

LeinzLieberman are the performance makers Shlomo Lieberman (Israel/Germany) and Ulrich Leinz (Germany). Over the last three years, their work has been included in three consecutive Expat Expo | Immigration Invasion festivals and we premiered their groundbreaking The Other/Promised Land in the fall of 2016. We are very excited to host them – collaborating with colleagues – as our fall artists in residence, presenting three different works in September, October and November.

The Other/Promised Land will be performed on October 13 and the first public presentation of their newest work-in-progress, Olam HaBa – The Next World, will be presented in THE LAB on November 3.

Watch an excerpt of Lovers1

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