Two actors arrive to rehearsals with fragments of texts, historical documents and personal memories. What is their story? Where is the play? Whose roles are they meant to play? The documents relate to the true and shocking story of the twice-sentenced and most wanted Nazi criminal Alois Brunner, who fled to safety in Damascus in 1954, protected by the regime and active in building up its brutal secret service. They also find unfinished scenes by their friend and playwright Mudar Alhaggi, in which he imagines meeting Brunner as a young man in Damascus. He also writes about coming to terms with his current exile in Berlin. Why has Mudar disappeared? Why did he not finish the play? Part archival research, part detective quest, part re-enactment, the actors reveal fragile and deeply moving narratives, in which traumatic lives are caught in endless loops of fears, lies and hopeful endings.

The Long Shadow of Alois Brunner is a deeply personal work, asking searing questions of justice, disappearance, refuge and theatre as an act of revelation - set against the backdrop of two seminal conflicts the 20th and 21st century.

Multi-award-winning Palestinian/Italian director Omar Elerian (The Bush, Royal Court Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company) directs renowned Syrian actors Wael Kadour and Mohammad Alrashi.

Collective Ma’louba is a leading ensemble of Syrian theatre makers now residing in Germany and France.

In Arabic with German & English subtitles

Production Collective Ma’louba

Coproduced by Theater an der Ruhr, supported by the Ministerium für Kunst und Wissenschaft des Landes NRW + euro-scene Leipzig

Further support: Neustart Kultur / Fonds Darstellende Künste (Recherchef.rderung) + 1927 Art Space Athen + Berlin Mondiale