text and direction Falk Richter
with Lana Baric, Charline Ben Larbi, Gabriel Da Costa, Mehdi Djaadi, Khadija El Kharraz Alami, Douglas Grauwels, Piersten Leirom, Tatjana Pessoa
drammaturgy Nils Haarmann
coreography
 Nir de Volff
set and costumes Katrin Hoffmann
music Matthias Grübel
video Aliocha Van der Avoort
lights Philippe Berthomé
diretcor assistant Chrystèle Ortu
set and costumes assistant Emilie Cognard
intern director assistant Barthélémy Fortier
French translation Anne Monfort

production Théâtre National de Strasbourg
in co-production with Odéon – Théâtre de l’Europe Comédie de Genève, Thalia Theater – Hambourg, Noord Nederlands Toneel (NNT) – Groningen, HNK – Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb, Théâtre de Liège et DC&J Créations, Dramaten – The Royal Dramatic Theatre of Sweden Stockholm –  Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione
with the support of Goethe Institut Nancy/Strasbourg in the field of the project Freiraum, Tax Shelter of the Federal Government of Belgium and Inver Tax Shelter
project supported by French Institute in the field of “Théâtre export”

Decoration and costumes were realized in the laboratories of TNS
Falk Richter is an associated artist of TNS

lenght 2 hours
national première
played in French and other languages with Italian subtitles

Following the success of I am Fassbinder, playwright / director Falk Richter collaborates with choreographer Nir de Volff, dramaturge Nils Haarmann and an ensemble of eight young actors, dancers, and performance artists from different European countries. These artists speak French, Croatian, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic and English on stage. Richter and his creative team bring together the personal stories of the performers to question notions of identity and community, creating a panorama of Europe today. 

What does a family look like today? How important to us are notions of identity, origin, and homeland? How far are we defined by relationships, and by a sense of belonging? What communities do we belong to, and what kind of world do we want to live in?
I have brought together an ensemble of actors, dancers, and performance artists from different European countries, all aged between 20 and 35 years old, all with complex stories of identity, family, and belonging, stretching far beyond national and cultural boundaries. Some have family origins in former colonies of Western powers, giving them another perspective on Europe. We started work with a group of 25 artists, and we have chosen 8 of them for the performances. Rehearsals started initially in French and English: gradually other languages have come in, and the performances will also include Croatian, Portuguese, Dutch and Arabic.
How has European history marked the lives of these young performers? In what kinds of families have they grown up? What do they think of the concept of family? How do they see themselves within a Europe threatened by fear and right-wing populism, and in democracies that are increasingly overrun by discourses of hatred and demagoguery? How do they imagine we will live together in the future?

Falk Richter

www.tns.fr

Falk Richter, biography

Falk Richter

Falk Richter, who was born in Hamburg in 1969, is one of the most acclaimed contemporary authors and directors. Since 1994, he has worked for numerous renowned national and international theatres, such as the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Schauspielhaus in Zürich, the Schauspiel in Frankfurt, the Schaubühne in Berlin, the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, the Hamburg Opera, Oslo’s National Opera, the Toneelgroep in Amsterdam, the Théâtre National de Bruxelles, the Ruhrtriennale music festival, the Salzburg festival and the festival d’Avignon. Among his most famous and renowned texts are God is a DJ, Electronic City, Under the Ice and Trust. His plays, which bear witness to burning issues in current affairs, have been translated into over 30 languages and are performed throughout the whole world. In recent years, he has developed more and more independent projects, relying on his own texts, in collaboration with an ensemble of actors, dancers and musicians.
With choreographer Anouk van Dijk, he has created several projects where dance and theatre mingle, creating new aesthetics fusing text, dance and music in a particular way. Nothing Hurts, Trust, Protect me, Rausch and Complexity of Belonging, their mutual creations, tour the world and have had great international success.
In 2013, he was awarded the Friedrich-Luft prize for his show For the Disconnected Child mixing music, dance and theatre which was created at the Schaubühne in Berlin in cooperation with the Staatsoper im Schillertheater.
In 2014, he directed several of his texts: Small Town Boy at the Maxim Gorki Theater and performed at the TNS in January 2016; Complexity of Belonging with the Chunky Move/ Melbourne Theatre Company at the Melbourne Theatre Festival in Australia; Never Forever in collaboration with choreographer Nir de Volff at the Schaubühne in Berlin and presented in 2015 at the Venice Biennale. Zwei uhr nachts was created at the Schauspiel in Frankfurt. In October 2015, he created FEAR at the Schaubühne in Berlin. Je suis Fassbinder premiered at the TNS in 2016 and was presented in Paris at La Colline- Théâtre National and the Théâtre du Rond-Point (2019). Falk Richter is a visiting professor at the Ernst Busch School in Berlin where he teaches stage direction He has been an associate artist of the TNS project since January 2015.

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