The LAB: Innocence by Deah Loha

Colorblind? > Racial identity on stage.

INNOCENCE by Dea Loher, translated and directed by Daniel Brunet

with Priscilla Bergey, Carrie Getman, Ernest Allan Hausmann, Moses O. Leo, Julie Trappett and others.

The post-performance discussion will feature Sharon Otoo of Bühnenwatch and John von Düffel , dramaturg of the production of Unschuld at the Deutsches Theater.

Tickets: 5 Euros
More Info >> Colorblind? > Racial identity on stage
Unschuld (Innocence) was the play that served as the basis for one of the productions protested earlier this year. Written by Dea Loher, one of Germany's most popular, prolific and produced contemporary playwrights, this poetic, expressionistic piece tells the stories of a group of seemingly unrelated characters existing at the fringes of society. An unnamed European city by the sea. Fadoul and Elisio, two illegal African immigrants, see a white woman drown and are too afraid of being deported to save her. A blind young woman, Absolutely, dances naked for men who can see. Mrs. Hadit searches out the families of victims of violent acts to beg forgiveness for crimes she did not commit. Franz has found the job of his life: serving the dead as an undertaker's assistant, while all that his wife, Rosa, wants from him is a child. Rosa's mother, Mrs. Sugar, celebrates the progression of her diabetes by moving in with them. And Ella, an aging philosopher, burns all of her books and no longer believes in anything but the unreliability of the world.

Dea Loher is unequivocally one of the most significant and highest esteemed contemporary German-language playwrights. The author of nearly 20 plays, multiple radio plays, a libretto, a book of short stories and the recent novel Bugatti taucht auf, Loher has been awarded nearly every significant German prize for excellence as a playwright, including the Bertolt Brecht Literature Prize, the Mülheim Drama Prize and the Berlin Literature Prize, some multiple times. With a body of work dating from 1991, Loher's plays are marked by innovative uses and combinations of styles of language, merging the poetic with the pedestrian, the literary and the laconic, utilizing the resulting dissonance to great dramatic effect. While her subject matter ranges from small town life to events torn directly from the pages of international news outlets to historical and literary figures such as Medea and the Red Army Faction, Loher continually explores what it is that creates communities, what it is that creates connections between individuals and how these connections are maintained or severed. Loher's plays have an impact far beyond the boundaries of the German-speaking world; her work has been translated into 28 different languages. Her newest play, Am Schwarzen See, will receive its world premiere at Deutsches Theater Berlin on October 26, 2012.

Quelle: kulturkurier / Kulturclub.de