EXBERLINER Issue 170, April 2018

WHAT’S ON — Stage
DON’T MISS
Walking Large
Toks Körner’s debut
play is about two
Black German brothers,
one a lawbreaker,
the other a model
citizen. Apr 12-15
(English surtitles
Apr 14-15), Ballhaus
Naunynstraße
Kasia Wolińska,
Przemek Kamiński
Dock11 presents two
performances by
Berlin-based Polish
choreographers:
Wolinska’s Dance,
pilgrim, dance, based
on three revolutionary
works Isadora
Duncan created in
the USSR in the early
1920s; and Kaminski’s
Blue (ribbon dance),
a choreographic
contemplation of the
titular colour.
Apr 13-15, 19:00
Endstation Sehnsucht
Tennessee Williams’
Streetcar Named Desire
premieres in
German at the Berliner
Ensemble. Director
Michael Thalheimer
recently said he
didn’t want to do any
more classics, but it
seems he can’t resist
Stanley Kowalski’s
siren call: “Stellaaa!”
Apr 21, 22, 30 (English
surtitles), 19:30
Interview
“ All the focus was on creating
the new and strong Jew”
Israeli director Ofira Henig premieres Kind of,
a play about the manufacturing of intolerance
in her home country’s schools. By Daniel Mufson
Gerard Alon
Ofira Henig has a reputation
for challenging Israeli audiences.
Her intense focus on
the actor’s presence has been compared
to that of Peter Brook – and
in fact Henig’s international career
received a boost when Brook saw her
work at the Israel Festival in 2007
and became a big supporter. Simply
by virtue of her decision to work
with Palestinian actors, her productions
are often viewed as political,
but her engagement with the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict goes beyond that.
When a state-funded performing
arts center opened in Ariel, an Israeli
settlement in the West Bank, she was
among the artists who announced
they would boycott its performances.
Kind of explores education as
a system of exclusion. Was that
your experience growing up in
Israel? I was born on a Kibbutz but
grew up in a small city near Tel Aviv,
where I attended a regular state
school. My school years were around
1967, after the Six-Day War, and my
experience was hard. It was not a
time or place for a slow and dreamy
child like me. All the focus was on
creating the “new and strong Jew”,
creating a new society. It echoed
testimonies I’ve heard and read from
witnesses to other dark periods in
the 20th century.
Is there a story amidst the
piece’s fragmentary texts?
The two main narratives are of the
storyteller presenting the childhood
of an Israeli girl in school, and of the
Arab attendant who works in this
school and becomes the ultimate
victim. These stories are about my
childhood. I’m exploring the educational
system in the 1960s and 1970s
in Israel. I’m trying to understand
if the risk of fascism in our bloody,
bleeding country is a risk that comes
out only now with the right-wing
government, or if it has deeper
ideological roots.
Did you come to any conclusion?
I guess it was always there,
but now, we have even lost our
sense of shame.
F.I.N.D. FESTIVAL
APR 9-22
Does the collage structure – mixing
found material with original
work – serve as a metaphor for the
fragmented nature of Israeli-Palestinian
existence? I was expecting
this question, but as you have noticed
the idea of “co-existence” does not appear
in my lexicon. I don’t like to talk
about my dialogue with Palestinian artists
as an example or will to “co-exist”.
There is no “co-existence” and by
working with my friends, I do not pretend
to show it. The project is based
on fragments because I love drama,
poetry, documentary stuff, philosophy,
I just love it all and am inspired by it.
I love to “dance” with it on stage.
And so do the actors.
Why did you decide to leave the
Israeli state theatre system? I have
good friends in the big theatres and
I don’t judge them. But to cooperate
with the celebration of the status quo –
that is a big “no” for me. So we decided
to forego government funding to avoid
being labeled as presenters of the
state of Israel...
What do you think of the BDS
movement? Some of its advocates
want European institutions
to boycott artists like
you, who actually have similar
desires, at least in terms of a
peaceful and just resolution to
the occupation... Of course I feel
sympathy for the BDS movement. I
follow its activity and I believe in its
power. But I think BDS advocates miss
two issues: They injure people like me
– which I accept – who are boycotted
inside Israel and by doing so, they
serve the right wing. And sometimes
they conflate Judaism and Zionism,
which I do not accept. By doing this,
they lapse into anti-Semitism.
Kind of Apr 6-8 (multilingual,
with English surtitles), Schaubühne
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EXBERLINER 170