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Please, Repeat After Me

Following a sold-out performance in the 2019 Expo Festival and a rave review in Der Tagesspiegel, we are very pleased to welcome Please, Repeat After Me back for two encore performances!

I have millions of reasons to be crazy; give me one reason to be sane!

Or

Please, Repeat After Me is a play about decision-making and labels.

(We)* are left abandoned in the theater with a real mermaid: a fish incapable of being eaten and a woman incapable of seduction.

But the mermaid is real!

When does a stereotype stop being a stereotype?

When does a refugee stop being a refugee?

When does an actor stop being an actor?

 

Electra

ETB | IPAC & Berlin International Youth Theatre present

HARVARD COLLEGE STUDENTS with their production of the Sophocles classic, Electra, featuring Turkish TV star Ece Hakim.

A moving exploration of family and justice: Thousands of years ago, King Agamemnon ruled over Mycenae alongside his wife Clytemnestra and his four children Iphigenia, Electra, Orestes and Chrysothemis. All was well until Agamemnon’s sister in law, Helen, was taken to Troy. Now it was up to him to command the Greek armed forces into the infamous Trojan War which would claim many victims, including Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigenia, whom he sacrificed to the Gods in exchange for a strategic advantage. Upon his return, Agamemnon was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover. Electra, along with her dead father’s adviser, organized the kidnapping of her youngest brother Orestes, with the intent of training the young boy to one day avenge his father and murder his mother. Fifteen years later, Orestes returns to fulfill his murderous destiny…

This is the latest production by director Isaiah Michalski, actor of Lars Kraume’s award-winning film The Silent Revolution (Das schweigende Klassenzimmer). Michalski studies theater at Harvard College and is currently participating in the Schaubühne’s prestigious apprenticeship program.

The show will include an original score and live music by composer Marie Carroll.

 

Feathers in the Fire

ATTENTION: OFF-SITE PERFORMANCE at Reduta Schauspielbühne Gneisenaustr. 41 | HH

We all know the ancient tale of the boy who ignored his father’s warnings and flew too close to the sun. But do we really? The tale we think we know has been twisted and altered at the tyrannical hands of King Minos and his followers. It’s about time to shed some light on what really happened.

On May 25 and 26, the Berlin International Youth Theatre Ensemble will reveal the true story of Icarus to you (according to their sources) in the form of the original play Feathers in the Fire.

While King Minos wages his ugly war, a small but not insignificant group of teenage resisters plans a deadly rescue mission. Two important members, Iris and Icarus, are the strong-willed offspring of Daedalus, who happens to be the king’s favorite designer of weapons of mass destruction.

In addition to the usual family conflicts, this really is a recipe for disaster.

Our story, however, really begins on Mount Olympus, hanging out with the gods, useless, vain and bored out of their minds. A dangerous combination.

Using epic storytelling, elements of the Greek chorus and physical theater, the BIYT Ensemble, featuring actors between the ages 14 and 19, reboot this ancient myth as a sneakily humorous yet visceral and haunting tale that strays wildly (and joyously) from all of the versions we’ve heard before.

Please, Repeat After Me

I have millions of reasons to be crazy; give me one reason to be sane!

Or

Please, Repeat After Me is a play about decision-making and labels.

(We)* are left abandoned in the theater with a real mermaid: a fish incapable of being eaten and a woman incapable of seduction.

But the mermaid is real!

When does a stereotype stop being a stereotype?

When does a refugee stop being a refugee?

When does an actor stop being an actor?

BIYT LAB – The Time Machine Team

A fast-paced adventure story filled with twists and turns

After an apocalyptic energy crisis, an odd group of specialists are brought together to create a machine which can transport them back into time. Their mission: solve the energy problem and repair time itself. No big deal, right? Wrong. This seemingly impossible task must be completed or the planet is doomed. The team just might have a chance, if they could only get along. Unfortunately, their personal differences are so extreme that discord threatens to destroy what little chance they have of survival.

This is very first public performance of an original play written completely by the 2019 BIYT Lab group, whose members are between the ages of 11 and 14.

We Keep Coming Back

by Selfconscious PRODUCTIONS (Toronto)

The (mostly) true story of an odyssey to Poland that a son and mother – both descendants of Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivors – took while accompanied by Katka Reszke (Polish-Jewish scholar and author of Return of the Jew) as their guide.

We Keep Coming Back is a story that Michael Rubenfeld set in motion and one that now involves a core co-creative team. It was a trip of return to the country of Michael and his mother’s cultural origin. While elemental in its urge to reunite mother and son, the work is also steeped with a contemporary politic. While seeking to understand Poland’s complicated history, the narrative takes an unexpected turn in discovering a vibrant contemporary world of Jewish life in Poland.

In her book Return of the Jew, Katka Reszke refers to this narrative as the ‘Generation Unexpected’ – this is a new generation of young Polish Jews who are mostly descendants of Jewish families who had hid their roots to survive both the pogroms and later, the Shoah. It was only after the fall of Communism in 1990, that it became safe to once again practice as a Jew in Poland. Subsequently, thousands of discoveries of unexpected Jewish histories have been made – and these stories are growing every day.

In the performance, the concept of ‘generation unexpected’ is realized both in the retelling of Katka’s own story of personal Jewish discovery, and by dissecting Poland’s confrontation with the energy of a revitalized Jewish narrative in Poland, and the deep roots of a North American antipathy towards Poland. To borrow from and broaden Katka’s term, ‘generation unexpected’ characterizes the surprising positions each of the four characters in We Keep Coming Back are revealed to hold. It also elementally sits at the nexus of unexpected results forever revealing themselves in the other generation.

We Keep Coming Back is presented in a visually and audio rich environment, incorporating video footage from the team’s research trips, archival material (photographs, maps), and live and recorded music. The creators play themselves.

It was developed in Toronto and Poland.

SELFCONSCIOUS PRODUCTIONS is the performance company of Canadian theater makers Michael Rubenfeld and Sarah Garton Stanley. They both share the belief that other people and being alive are both very confusing. They think that this is probably why they get along so well and also why they both remain interested in using the theatre as a place to explore how hard it is to do and be the things they most want to do and be. But they also believe that it is possible. So they keep trying. Their shows are The Book of Judith, The Failure Show, mothermothermother…, and We Keep Coming Back.

In cooperation with the 31st Jewish Culture Days Berlin

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

TRIBAL SCHMIBAL – A Parable

The 2018 summer show by Berlin International Youth Theatre (BIYT)

Tribalism divides communities – Elucidate – you have 45 minutes

With these words begins the lively myth of the Whooziwhatzits.

Given the assignment (by an absent teacher) to explain the statement the students begin to weave a tale that is both as familiar as it is absurd. And tragically true (well at least based on a true story).

An alternate version of history. A parable about the eternal battle of inheritance between two brothers and the fate of two tribes.

The classic tale. Since the beginning of time.

We begin our story in an average Berlin classroom. Which is divided by music allegiances as is usually the case. Although music should unite us, for them it’s a sign of their tribe, separating the cool from the silly.

And suddenly there is a Jinn, a slippery figure from the shadows, If it wasn’t for her, everyone would be living happily ever after. But as human nature has its light and dark side so does the Jinn. Mainly dark, though. And the darkness feeds the lies.

A cast of eleven talented young people bring this tale to life using physicality, body percussion and song.

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.

Bette Davis…“Fasten Your Seatbelts!”

A performance trip through the glorious ups and the dramatic downs of a Hollywood life

Bette Davis was one of Hollywood’s greatest stars. Between 1931 and 1989, she acted in more than a hundred films, won the Oscar twice and was nominated another eight times. Some of the greatest movies in motion picture history – Of Human Bondage, Jezebel, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, or All About Eve – are Bette Davis films. She was uncompromising, fought for better scripts, had no qualms about playing antagonistic characters and always wanted to be authentic. Davis was a living example that you can have a career and stay true to yourself – if you’re prepared to pay the price of loneliness. A life worthy of a movie.

“Bettina Lohmeyer as Bette Davis in ‘Fasten Your Seatbelts’ ignites into originality and pure entertainment. An evening of blazing theatrical fireworks. Brilliant – it soars!” Joe Franklin, Bloomberg Radio, New York City, 2014

In six scenes, Bette Davis…“Fasten Your Seatbelts!” highlights a life full of triumph and successes, love, tragedies and confrontations. Bettina Lohmeyer takes the audience to a duel with movie mogul Jack Warner in his office, to a cemetery in Maine, to a lonely home, back to shooting on set in Los Angeles, to the Oscar ceremony and finally to the last chapter in Bette Davis’ life…

A dream comes true: upon the invitation of U.S. director and producer Susan Batson, Bettina Lohmeyer developed, wrote and performed her play “Bette Davis… “Fasten Your Seatbelts!” in Batson’s studio theater in New York. After intense research, including interviews with Bette Davis’ contemporaries, Bettina Lohmeyer staged the Davis myth: hard as nails, quick-witted, assertive and just as uncompromising, vulnerable and full of humor.

Bettina Lohmeyer was an ensemble member at Maxim Gorki Theater for six years and also worked at Schauspielhaus Hannover, Staatstheater Mainz, and Schauspielhaus Graz. She has acted in numerous film and television productions, such as Der letzte Zeuge, SOKO Leipzig, Der Baader Meinhof-Komplex and in a continuous starring role in Hinter Gittern.
Pics: Barbara Braun | Film still: Bette Davis in Of Human Bondage (1934)