How can a fractured and irreconcilable world be explained so that it starts to make sense again? With his texts, the author Navid Kermani repeatedly asks this question afresh and directs his gaze to those places where political conflicts seem to dispell humanity. This issue of reflecting a world that appears to have become incomprehensible is one that also concerns the theatre. Eva Mattes and Roberto Ciulli take Kermani’s texts as their starting point and compass for an expedition that questions the present. Here two artists meet on stage for the first time whose un- conventional theatrical biographies have made a substantial mark over the last sixty years. From her very first leading role, Mattes played a key part in New German Cinema, working at an early age with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog, and later went on to create milestones of German theatre history with Peter Zadek and others. The legendary director Roberto Ciulli founded the Theater an der Ruhr in Mühlheim in 1981, had an almost unrivalled influence on German theatre and subsequently, with his own work as an actor, he has questioned the traditional ascription of roles. Independently of each other, they have both been involved in a lengthy dialogue with Kermani and his work. Mattes and Ciulli encounter both early and recent texts from Kermani’s novels and reportage and use them to create a scenic universe that seems to harshly juxtapose personal impressions, dialogues and perspectives on the state of the world: a kalei- doscope of stories and scenes about birth and death, love, hate and mercy. This generates a remarkable synergy between Mattes, Ciulli and Kermani and a very special evening: a passionate yet tentative attempt to let the fragments of the world shine once again.

Eine Produktion von Kunstfest Weimar und Theater an der Ruhr, Mülheim an der Ruhr

In Koproduktion mit dem Stadttheater Fürth, dem Kleist Forum Frankfurt (Oder), dem Theatres de la Ville de Luxembourg und den Ruhrfestspielen Recklinghausen.

Navid Kermani, Dein Name © 2011 Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, München Navid Kermani, Das Alphabet bis S © 2023 Carl Hanser Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, München