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EIN/VERSTÄNDNIS

Ein Rührstück auf dem Minenfeld der Wahrheiten

von Deborah Zoe Laufer

A melodrama on the minefield of truths | by Deborah Zoe Laufer

Die erste deutschsprachige Produktion am ETB | IPAC (natürlich mit englischen Übertiteln): EIN/VERSTÄNDNIS von Deborah Zoe Laufer, die achte Produktion im Rahmen unserer SCIENCE & THEATRE-Reihe.

The first ever German-language production at ETB | IPAC (With English surtitles, of course) : EIN/VERSTÄNDNIS by Deborah Zoe Laufer, part 8 of our SCIENCE & THEATRE series.

So langsam ist alles bekannt. Unser Genom erzählt vieles darüber, wo wir herkommen und weiß einiges von dem, was uns erwartet. Was also wollen wir tatsächlich wissen? Was wollen wir der Wissenschaft zugestehen? Und brauchen wir Religion und Mythen noch?

It is slowly starting to seem like we know everything. Our genome says a lot about where we come from and also has a notion about what awaits us. What do we actually want to know? What do we want to allow science to do? And do we still need religion and myths?

Eine junge Genetikerin forscht mit einem Stamm der Native Americans im Grand Canyon nach den genetischen Ursachen von Diabetes. Im Übereifer nimmt sie wenig Rücksicht auf die Interessen des Stammes und stößt dabei an die ethischen Grenzen der Wissenschaft. Und auch in ihrer Familie wird sie mit heftigem Widerstand konfrontiert, als sie Gentests an ihrer eigenen Tochter durchführen will.

A young geneticist conducts research into a tribe of Native Americans in the Grand Canyon in search of the genetic causes of diabetes. In her excitement, she fails to take the interests of the tribe into consideration and finds herself at the ethical crossroads of science. She also experiences tremendous resistance in her own family when she seeks to conduct gene tests on her daughter.

Deborah Zoe Laufer verknüpft in ihrem Stück einen historischen Fall – ein Paradebeispiel für die Missachtung der sogenannten ‘Informierten Zustimmung’, der von Information und Aufklärung getragenen Einwilligung der Betroffenen in Forschungstest – mit dem ganz persönlichen Kampf einer Wissenschaftlerin gegen unterschiedliche Interessen, aber auch gegen den Verlust des Gedächtnisses.

In her play, Deborah Zoe Laufer connects an historic case, a perfect example of non-compliance with so-called “informed consent”, which is the permission provided by the subject of the research test on the basis of having received sufficient information, with the very personal struggle of a scientist against a variety of interests, as well against the loss of her own memory.

EIN/VERSTÄNDNIS wirft ein Licht auf eine Reihe von Dilemmata und Fragen, mit denen die Wissenschaft sich konfrontiert sieht: Den Clash der Kulturen, den Gegensatz von Wissenschaft und Religion, die ethischen Implikationen genetischer Forschung und nicht zuletzt die Frage nach unserer Identität.

EIN/VERSTÄNDNIS shines a spotlight on a series of dilemmas and questions that science sees itself confronted with: the clash of cultures, the contradictions of science and religion, the ethical implications of genetic research and, not least of all, the question of our identity.

Group photo: Gerald Wesolowski | Scene photos: ETB

THE LAB: FAILED EPIC

“This century will be American. American thought will dominate it. American deeds will give it direction.”

When these words were first published in John Dos Passos’ seminal trilogy of novels collectively titled U.S.A. (1930 – 1938), they were undoubtedly intended to arouse feelings of patriotism, pride and optimism. Today this sentiment has a much more menacing tone than when it was written. FAILED EPIC seeks to embrace the menace implied in Dos Passos’ nationalistic nostalgia by taking a forgotten mainstay of the American Literary Canon and deconstructing it in a contemporary “news show” context.

In the performance, apocalyptic headlines from the beginning of the 20th century are reported in real time, only to be interrupted with live interviews, pre-recorded human interest pieces, on-location reporting, talking-head analysis and other layers of media within media. As the overabundance of fictional and historical narratives start to accumulate, we begin to see a timely portrait of a nation on the verge of collapse, as ideological divisions, economic inequality, and impending war threaten to destroy it.

Following an international cast of performers, we walk through a global landscape of characters whose lives are determined by massive, unseen forces–economics, disease, addiction, precarious working conditions, prejudice and accidental death. In the face of injustice, these people dream of revolution. Anarchists, Marxists, Wobblies, Capitalists, Socialists, Feminists–all are waiting to witness the death of the status quo. In these untragic lives, we see our own, with a bluntness that shifts the focus from the details of the individual stories to the universal dissatisfaction experienced in all of them.

Not only is this picture of a world divided into ideological and economic tribes a contemporary one, but–like today’s amateur online pundits–the people in this dystopia do not suffer in silence. Media serves to aggravate divisions among already splintered populations, as everyone sources their talking points from the political movement of their choice. Likewise, the success or failure of these movements seems to hang entirely on the oratory abilities of their leaders, who hold wild, Trump-like rallies aimed at “stirring up” followers, who will serve as foot soldiers in a bloody war of ideas.

Dos Passos’ own role in this conflict is still unresolved, as many contemporary critics characterize U.S.A. as “a failed epic by a writer out of his depth.” The goal of this performance is not to restore the author’s reputation, but rather to use his novels as a way of engaging with the Pre-War zeitgeist. Unlike his contemporaries Fitzgerald and Hemingway, Dos Passos’ prose does not need to be unpacked or even admired. Instead, it simply needs to unfold like a Twitter feed or scrolling news crawl, as a seemingly endless series of shocking, strange, mundane, and compelling events accumulate, coalescing into a complex portrait of a democracy at a crossroads, with no clear consensus on which way to go next.

Followed by a post-performance discussion

STAR CAPTAIN: THROUGH THE DARK YOU’LL FIND THE LIGHT

A theatrical concert performance by Miss Natasha Enquist, Electro-Accordion Chanteuse

Put your suit of glamour on, this ride is a bumpy one… this journey of self-discovery follows our dear adventure-hungry Star Captain, who leaves her home planet to discover a new world and the struggles she faces while there.

Using multimedia and the songs from Miss Natasha Enquist’s debut album, MNE, this story is played out before you with the help of her mighty accordion and projected visuals for you to experience all that comes from connecting to the indomitable spirit within.

2018 EXP(L)O(RE)

A JOURNEY OF DISCOVERY
This format opens the festival and is dedicated to newcomers, shorter performances and work-in-progress. Spend an entire afternoon taking in seven different performances. In between the performances, you can enjoy fantastic food, luxurious libations and magnificent music by international, Berlin-based musicians. Performances start at 2pm and we open our doors at 1pm.

BRUNCH LADY by Katie-Rose Spence (Australia), Costume Design by Rachel Nielson (USA)

An interactive solo clown act pondering (whilst sipping a mimosa) the pressures of keeping up appearances.

“Forgoing avo on toast for brunch once a week and you’ll save for your deposit in … 175 years! …. “ Brigid Delaney.

We parade about with delusions of grandeur, in a climate where we are willing to overlook the cost, both personal and societal, for the appearance of having everything now. It’s official, brunch has been condemned as an extravagant excess, but here we are happily munching away our hangover on Sunday morning anyway, unable to afford our lives, but content in our denial.
Until today.
Brunch Lady will ensure your late morning meal will never be quite the same again…pray it wasn’t you who ordered the avocado on toast.

DANCING WITH THE SHADOWS by Julia Vandehof (Austria), Niall Fallon (UK), Ainhoa Hevia Uria (Spain), Angharrad Matthews (UK) and Berta del Ben (Italy)

The performance is a descent into the realm of mythical ghosts and phantoms inspired by the story of Persephone. The unexplored shadows hidden within this narrative are shown through non-linear storytelling.

The audience will be taken into the House of Hades with Persephone, the Queen of the Dead. The story alludes to the cyclical nature of life-death and to resurrection, and to question what it means to embrace death-in-life. It is a deeply atmospheric world encountered through movement, sound and light.

GRUESOME MANIFESTO by Cher Nobyl/Catalin Jugravu (Romania), with Andrei Raicu (Romania), Syrtha (Lithuania) and Yasmin Keany (Australia)

An alternative drag performance conceived as a spiritual leap into the metaphysical space where subjects such as a dystopian existence, the present time and the ratio of cause to effect in wars worldwide are molded through spoken word, dance and video projection into arguments which favor the total nuclear destruction of humanity as Salvation.

It’s total demagogy disguised in holy garments under the shape of none other than Cher Nobyl, The High Priestess of our Atomic Rebirth

INTEGRATE ‘ER by Iva Topolovec (Croatia) and Salber Williams (Portugal/Zimbabwe)

Two women. A bonfire of baggage. This performance is a broken experiment of identity and compromise. Using bodies and household items, we reach for ways to integ- …scratch that. What is integration, anyway?

THE HEARING TEST by Shanti Suki Osman (UK/Germany)

This is an interactive sound performance which asks the audience to scrutinize habits in their auditory perception.

Upon entering the room they hear a continuous set of instructions prompting them to interact with the objects in the room: choose an object that best describes my voice; write a postcard to a person who would like this sound.

Playing with the ideas of privilege, prejudice and positioning, this piece is very simple in its demand for a critical ear to be turned towards ourselves, in the hope to excavate what lies behind our tendencies and tastes.

THE LIVING AND OUR GHOSTS by Noirphiles/Adrian Marie Blount (USA)

Film, music, song and dance are used to bear witness to the marginalization of LGBTQIA people of color. How can we be witnesses for the marginalized?

How do the ancestors guide us to become witnesses? What can be learned in listening to those who exist within the margins of the past present and future?

This piece holds space for those spaces of uncertainty, ugly, undefined and intangible.

WE CAN DO IT MOANING by ABA NAIA Collective, directed by Kysy Fischer (Brazil), performed by Rafuska Marks (Brazil) and Teija Vaittinen (Finland)

This is a performance of breathing and sound.

Different actions of moaning are created by three women for a construction of a human moan-machine, a text, a dialog or a song. But we are specific: we produce a symphony of moaning.

We treat the moan as a matter. As physics. As anthropology. Not as biology. We moan as a sport. We moan as an acoustic experience. We moan in hysteria. Hysteria?

We moan because someone has commanded us to moan. We moan because we can. We moan because it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. We moan because it moves us and we keep moving just because we moan.

Skin Deep in Zaraniya

A participatory performance with live soundscape

An international ensemble enact performative tasks in a live soundscape bringing participants into a deeper understanding of the immigrant phenomenon and the universal human impact of sound and movement.

In this age of immigration anxiety, cross the threshold to the unexplored land of Zaraniya, immersing yourself in an interactive transformative music, movement and theater encounter rousing you from the sleep of the familiar.

Landscapes of My Inner Diaspora

Fantasy and memory are combined in the attempt to define one’s own identity, or, more fittingly, the attempt to create it…

This performance uses music, text, movement and visuals to externalize the most inner, the most intimate, the so-called “immigrants of identity”. The audience is taken on a journey through the jagged paths and landscapes between physical and psychic diaspora.

The contradiction and abstraction created when one listens a little bit to everything without actually really listening to anything is made palpable, dreamy, oniric landscapes are created where the alienation extends to space, time, material, body and psyche.

Firewater

An experimental theater piece about a woman’s escape to “Firewater” – a soap opera with an uninvited guest

Jane drinks.

In certain religions and spiritual beliefs, when one consumes alcohol their body becomes vulnerable; an open receptacle for bad spirits. This weakened state leaves the body defenseless to becoming demonically possessed. Jane, the newcomer to “Firewater”, is one of the unlucky ones that happens to fall victim.

A compilation of confessions and delusions, Firewater is a twisted nightmare of insatiable desires.

Unfolding Universe

A soundscape performance of everyday objects

Heiner&Lindsig assemble on stage a multitude of cups which they found on breakfast tables, in flea markets and in display cases. In scenarios ranging from everyday life, sensuality and obsessive misuse, the performers elicit hypnotizing soundscapes and images from their collection – creating a universe that follows laws of an inscrutable logic.

Veronika Heisig and Manuel Lindner are the founders and protagonists of Heiner&Lindsig. The duo began their collaboration in a short film project and created performances for stop motion films with everyday objects. They work playfully between different media and explore the magic in everyday life.

We Just Moved You

documentary theater

We Just Moved You is a new documentary play about moving in Berlin – from WG Zimmer to WG Zimmer, from relationship to relationship, from studying to working (maybe), from job to job (if you can get your hands on one) – and the families-by-choice we cobble together to help us get through it all.

Director Sylvia Avery is from New Zealand, where she studied theater, politics and teaching before moving to Berlin to learn German. Her last theater project was stage managing #Instalove, an interactive show staged at English Theater Berlin | International Performing Arts Center in 2017.

Born and raised in LA la land, assistant director Shaleah Dawnyel’s love for collaborative theater was bred on musical theater stages and doing sketch comedy in Hollywood. A classic artistic “slasher” she escaped the City of Angels in 2009 to begin a torrid love affair with Berlin. Thrilled to be part of the team, when asked if we could make expat theater great again, Shaleah replied: yes we can!

Composer Andrew Fox’s theatrical orchestrations include Twisted, Hansel and Gretel, and Foreverman (Winner 2012 NYMF Awards for Excellence, Outstanding Orchestration). He has produced several recordings, including the cast recordings for Twisted and Hansel and Gretel, the pop EP Twisted: Twisted, and Night Off by Tha Los. Andrew is a co-founder of Nvak , which brings popular music education and opportunities to students in countries facing social, political, and economic hardship. He is a founding faculty member and curriculum designer for the Contemporary Vocals program at AMDA and a voice instructor at the American Musical Theater Academy. Andrew wrote the music for the children’s musical Caveman 2.0, which will see its New York area premiere in Spring of 2018. Andrew is a member of the BMI Musical Theater Songwriting workshop and a graduate of SUNY Purchase’s Studio Composition program.

Production designer Marcella Gersh is a German-American material culture nerd. After completing her thesis in sustainable design at Hampshire College, she built furniture, produced daytime talk shows, assisted designers for theater and advertising, and worked on indie film projects. A sometimes overly passionate student of the meaning and substance of the visuals in narrative media, Marcella has relished the opportunity to develop this wonderful script through each character’s accessory and every little prop on stage. This is Marcella’s first play as principal designer.

Cast member Steve Greenfield is a true third culture kid and self-described “child of the global village.” Steve has been acting for more than 10 years, initially working with the murder mystery company Mystery Inc. He has also played at several interactive cult cinema events with the team at Screenage Kicks, highlights featuring a performance as the iconic musician Prince in Purple Rain. Aside from his live-action work based in Newcastle, UK, Steve has appeared on film in the web-based series Try Life, a horror anthology called Grindsploitation, The Movie, and as the lead in a vignette for the recent short film Rules of Engagement.

After having graduated with a degree in linguistics and literature, cast member Carolin Kipka started her acting studies at the Mainfranken Theater Würzburg under the direction of Bernhard Stengele (2009-2012). In the summer of 2012, she moved to Berlin and started working as a freelance actress and acting coach. In 2016 she finished an international acting programme that took place in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Croatia, Denmark, and Turkey. As an actress she has performed at ufa-Fabrik Berlin, Theater Leverkusen, Performing Arts Festival Berlin, Stadttheater Gießen, and Bühne 602 Rostock.

Vocalist Madeleine K. McMillan

Cast member Rose Warner Miles grew up in New York City and has loved theater since the moment she first heard the song “Anything You Can Do (I Can Do Better)”. She studied literature & psychology in the US, and after receiving her Bachelor’s degree in 2017 she moved to Berlin to write poetry and to practice her German. She was deeply involved with the student theater community in college, and credits include Water by the Spoonful (direction) and Fefu & Her Friends (Christina). We Just Moved You is her first professional production and she is thrilled to be a part of this talented ensemble. Many experiences discussed in We Just Moved You resonate deeply with Rose, and if anyone has an available room to rent in their WG, please let her know.

Cast member Joseph Raisi-Varzaneh graduated from the Royal Academy Of Dramatic Art in London (BA Acting program) in 2014. Productions at RADA include Mercury Fur, The Witch of Edmonton and Punk Rock. Prior to acting, Joseph trained in London and Mexico City in classical ballet and danced with English National Ballet. He has also performed in opera, including Terry Gilliam’s Damnation of Faust and as the Prince of Persia in Rupert Goold’s Turandot, both for ENO London Coliseum. Last year Joseph wrote his first full-length play, Sharks In A Paddling Pool, which was included in the 2017 RADA Festival. He is now working on his second full-length play. Further credits include Marnie for ENO, Cut Throat Camden Fringe, Glyndebourne Opera, Paramount/Plan B World War Z, and The Boy Dressed in Violins at Camden Peoples Theatre.

Raised across the globe in an ever-changing international setting, dramaturg and movement director Dineke Rieske went on to study history, culture, and philosophy during her BA at Amsterdam University College (with an exchange focused on theater and performance at UNSW in Sydney). She then continued studying theater for her MA at Utrecht University. Apart from her academic education, she has a year of dance training at Broadway Dance Center in New York under her belt. She has worked on shows in various capacities: both on stage as a performer and behind the scenes as (assistant) director, choreographer, and dramaturg.

Cast member Yael Rozanes is an actress, improviser and stand-up comedian from Ramat-Gan, Israel. Yael attended The L&L Goodman Theatre and Acting School of the Negev in Beer Sheva (2012-2015) after deciding to turn her ability to make stupid faces in front of the mirror into a career. She has performed in various improv shows, as a street performer, and in children’s and fringe plays, taught theater to kids and adults, and established her stand-up routine at Anna lou-lou Bar in Tel Aviv. She currently resides in Berlin, where she is a tour guide and a member of the “Ladies and Gentleman“ improv group.

Producer and playwright Alissa Rubinstein is a Los Angeles native who has been based in Berlin since 2012. Over the years she has worked as a playwright, translator, theater educator, literary manager, dramaturg, theater and film critic and stage manager in the United States, Germany, and Switzerland. Her last play, The 614th Commandment, sold out its one-night run at the 2016 Expat Expo | Immigrant Invasion Festival at ETB | IPAC. She holds a BA in theater and German with a focus on dramatic literature and criticism, translation, and playwriting from Tufts University and an MA in public history with a focus on documentary theater from Freie Universität Berlin.

Cast member Lydia Shoup studied theater at Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia and literature at Queen Mary University in London. When she’s not writing a novel she likes to fancy she’s a heroine in one by Henry James.

Lyricist Kevin Wanzor

Stage manager Fiona Wiedmann

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Theatre
Berlin International Performing Arts Center